Republican Representatives Sandy Salmon, Mark Cisneros and Jon Jacobsen are the unsung heroes of the 2021 Iowa legislative session when it comes to House Republicans.
That Republican trio sponsored an amendment to save women’s sports.
Salmon offered factual, scientific, common-sense arguments in defense of women’s sports before she withdrew it.
Boys and girls are different.
What’s been a widely accepted fact for thousands of years is now considered taboo when it comes to athletics.
That’s crazy.
I covered sports for more than 20 years. I have three sons and one daughter.
I can attest that boys and girls are different.
The Des Moines Register shared the following from Salmon’s speech:
“A boy may believe he is a girl, but that doesn’t cancel out his physical advantages.”
And the Register added, “however, researchers say that fear has little basis in science.”
That research isn’t quoted in the article, but a link to an NPR article is.
The article claims bills limiting or prohibiting biological boys from competing in women’s athletics create a false argument that biological boys have a competitive edge against actual girls.
One doctor, Dr. Eric Vilain, said there are no “good faith” reasons to limit biological boys from participating in girls sports.
I won’t dignify Vilain’s pseudo-science by acknowledging it beyond that.
One would think if there were a set of rules to govern good science, one of the first rules would be not to deny the obvious.
Suggesting biological boys wouldn’t have a competitive advantage over girls in athletics is incredibly ignorant when it comes to reality.
“Doctors” like Vilain who make such claims are abusing the one thing many claim to worship — science.
The Des Moines Register, which has covered athletics in Iowa for decades, should be able to reconcile the fact that boys have a competitive advantage against girls.
Does this mean every boy is more athletic than every girl?
No. There are exceptions.
But we’re talking about the rule.
I could be wrong on this, but why is it when we read about transgender athletes, we rarely if ever read about biological girls signing up to play against the boys?
I once asked the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union why they don’t allow boys to play volleyball in the fall when they allow girls to play football and wrestle.
Their reason: safety.
If a girl wants to compete against boys, she’s taking on individual risk. But allowing a boy to compete against girls would be exposing the girls to risk they aren’t necessarily willing to take by choice.
The Left can call it prejudice, bigoted, hateful, intolerant, old-fashioned — I sort of like just calling it what it is — unbiased, well-established fact.
And while facts can sometimes really hurt our feelings, our hurt feelings don’t make them any less factual.
This is just one element of this larger LGBTQ issue that needs to be resolved by Republicans in the Iowa legislature.
The fact it has not yet been introduced, debated, passed and signed into law with a Republican House, Republican Senate and Republican Governor should have Iowans demanding action.
