‘It Doesn’t Happen Often’ Is Not a Reasonable Defense for Men in Women’s Sports
Stephanie Lundquist-Arora is a mother in Fairfax County, Virginia, an author, and the Fairfax chapter leader of Independent Women’s Network. This piece originally appeared in The Daily Signal.
Americans are gaining ground in the fight to protect women’s sports.
This week, for example, the Department of Education sent a letter to the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the National Federation of State High School Associations, urging them to restore female athletes’ records. The demand comes on the heels of President Donald Trump’s executive orders to protect women’s sports and to restore biological truth to the federal government.
Also this week, the Virginia High School League, an athletic organization governing high school athletics in Virginia, changed its policy with regard to males in women’s sports to align with President Donald Trump’s executive order.
Meanwhile, the Minnesota State High School League and the California Interscholastic Federation did not change their policies, which continue to allow males in women’s sports. Consequently, the Department of Education announced on Feb. 12 that it is launching an investigation into these two athletic organizations for Title IX violations.
It’s about time.
As many Americans have noted, it’s absurd that President Trump would need to issue such an obvious executive order stating that men do not belong in women’s sports. Not long ago, though, a tyrannical minority had remarkable success in compelling our speech with mandated pronouns, in allowing males to participate in women’s sports and in allowing males to roam freely in women’s bathrooms and locker rooms. Those policies remain in place in many liberal public school districts and universities across the nation.
Under the Biden administration, Americans were afraid to speak out against the transgender mob for fear of losing their jobs or being “cancelled.” We found ourselves in an unprecedented and confusing situation in which truthful statements such as “Women don’t have penises” or “Men can’t get pregnant,” were labeled by a miniscule fraction of the population as “unkind” or even “hate speech.”
The tides have turned as people questioning the madness have found their voices through safety in numbers. Americans are collectively asking why we have been forsaking the rights, privacy, and safety of women for transgender-identifying males. It has become increasingly clear to the public, in case it was not before, that the so-called “rights” of a small group have come at the expense of another much larger group. Not surprisingly, the Left is crying foul over America’s return to commonsense regarding biological sex.
So, in response, the Left, likely noticing the public’s fatigue at its antics, has shifted its argument. Leftists say that since male participation in women’s sports doesn’t happen often, it’s not a big deal. Billy Haun, for example, the executive director of VHSL, said that from October 2020 to December 2024, 31 male students in Virginia’s high schools filed appeals to be on women’s teams and 28 were approved.
Transgender activist Shannon McKay, who is the executive director and co-founder of He She Ze and We, then argued, “It’s such a small number who want to play. So, to deny this for an entire community of people, the messaging is clear that the outside world wants them to think they don’t belong.”
The “there’s just a few so let’s allow it” logic reminds me of Vice President JD Vance’s appearance on ABC News in October 2024. During the interview with Martha Raddatz, the news correspondent had a puzzling rebuttal to Vance’s concerns about the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua crime syndicate’s activities in Aurora, Colorado. She said, “The incidents were limited to a handful of apartment complexes.”
“Martha, do you hear yourself? … A few apartment complexes, no big deal,” retorted Vance sarcastically.
To McKay and all the other transgender activists pursuing the annihilation of women’s rights on similar grounds, I also say, “Do you hear yourself? Just because only a small number do it, that doesn’t make it acceptable.”
It’s time to restore female athletes’ records, protect women’s sports from male participants, keep women’s private spaces female, and fight for free speech. We mustn’t forget this shameful chapter in our nation’s history during which the government violated free speech rights and women’s rights for the sake of an extremely loud and unreasonable tyrannical minority.
