Selina Soule, Alanna Smith, and Chelsea Mitchell are three high school track and field athletes. In their state of Connecticut, students are able to compete in divisions based on gender identity. This policy presented a problem to these female athletes, who lost races to biological males identifying as female. Transgender students Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood set new records in the women’s track and field division and made the competition nearly impossible for the actual girls. Back in February 2020, Alliance Defending Freedom(ADF) filed a lawsuit against the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference on behalf of Soule, Smith, and Mitchell. ADF said in the suit: “Having separate boys’ and girls’ sports has always been based on biological differences, not what people believe about their gender, because of those differences matter for fair competition.” People have correctly pointed out the athletic advantages of men, including their larger proportion of Type 2 muscle fibers and a higher proportion of lean muscle. Transgender advocates usually respond by saying how gender transitions take away these advantages. However, a study from The Journal of Medical Ethics found men who undergo gender transition still have physical advantages over women. It is notable that the transgender athletes in the Connecticut case did not even undergo hormone replacement therapy.
Now, the judge, in this case, has asked the attorneys to describe the students as transgender females. Judge Robert Chatigny said: “What I’m saying is you must refer to them as “transgender females” rather than as “males”… Referring to these individuals as “transgender females” is consistent with science, common practice, and perhaps human decency. To refer to them as “males,” period, is not accurate, certainly not as accurate, and I think it’s needlessly provocative.” and “This isn’t a case involving males who have decided that they want to run in girls’ events.” Actually, ADF is arguing exactly that-males are entering female sports with an unfair advantage. Lead attorney for ADF Roger Brooks pushed back, saying: “Gender identity is not the point of this case. The point of this case is the physiology of bodies driven by chromosomes and the documented athletic advantage that comes from a male body, male hormones, and male puberty in particular.” The attorneys asked the judge to recuse himself, as he demonstrated severe bias in his statement. In claiming that the transgender athletes are female, he has practically invalidated the biological girls’ argument. The controversy of transgenderism and sports shows how leftists do not simply want people to be left alone but want to push their ideology upon others and call them bigoted if they refuse to accept it.
