State Sen. Jim Carlin, who is running for the U.S. Senate seat in 2022, released the following statement regarding transgender equality in public school athletics on International Transgender Day of Visibility:
“Recently, there has been a lot of discussion regarding Title IX, a federal law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex. This law was not intended to address transgender identity as it relates to public school athletic competitions. It must be made clear that a person who chooses a gender that is different than the one they were born with is not automatically qualified to compete in a public-school-sponsored sport.
As with all public-school sports competitions, the qualifications are based on interest, skill, competitiveness, training, and the physical attributes required for the competition. The fact that boys and girls physically develop differently is a result of anatomy, not choice. In sports, biology matters. For example, to expect a 16-year-old girl to compete against a 16-year-old transgender boy in basketball would put most girls of that age at a huge disadvantage. All the effort and training she puts in to be her personal best will not matter. The fact that the boy identifies himself as female does not change this disadvantage.
Furthermore, any federal or state legislation requiring students to ignore the obvious anatomical differences between male and female athletes in competitions would be the beginning of the end of public-school girls’ sports, in my view. Forcing female teammates to share the locker room with transgender boys of the same age would put the nail in the coffin for girls in sports. It would be far better to build up gender-neutral competitions
that provide healthy alternatives for all students without unintended fall-out that would be caused by gender identity-driven legislation.
Girls have a legitimate right to competitive fairness on the field. They also have legitimate rights to privacy and safety in their locker rooms. Those rights should be preserved and protected.”
