Promising would-be Republican heroes like South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem fell for the oldest threat in the liberal playbook. Noem vetoed a great bill aimed at protecting girls’ sports because she was worried that the National Collegiate Athletics Association, or NCAA, would stop their involvement in South Dakota’s college sports.
Perhaps the phony threats by the NCAA to punish states which protect girls’ sports against transgendered biological males intimidated Republican leadership in some supposedly conservative states, but not in all of them. It was mere bluster, as the NCAA subsequently announced it will hold its women’s college softball regional tournaments in Alabama, Arkansas, and Tennessee, all of which have enacted legislation banning transgender athletes from intercollegiate women’s sports.
Organizations like the NCAA may threaten these boycotts, but at the end of the day, they do not want to give up the stranglehold they have on college sports. If they voluntarily back out of a state like South Dakota or Alabama, they are giving up their own power. If anyone should understand the dynamics of power, it should be politicians. Yet, spineless puppets in state offices would rather cower to empty threats than to protect the girls whose whole future depends on their ability to perform well in sports and secure critical college scholarships. It’s cowardice in its worst form, and athletes like Chelsea Mitchell are the ones to pay the price for it.
Chelsea is the fastest high school female runner in Connecticut. She properly complains about losing four state championship titles, two all-New England titles, and additional award podium spots to males who competed against her as transgenders. A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit by her and others once the transgenders graduated, by saying the lawsuit was then moot.
The only thing more egregious than this terrible miscarriage of justice is the fact that Chelsea had to take this issue to court in the first place. Every state legislature in the union should have made protecting girls sports the top priority on their list for 2021’s spring session. Girls like Chelsea should have to prove themselves on the track, court, and field, but state leaders should make sure they don’t have to prove themselves in court.
