Tomorrow marks 50 years since the passing of Title IX. Today, Alliance Defending Freedom held a press conference to discuss some of the cases they’ve handled as they relate to fairness in women’s sports.
ADF senior counsel Christiana Kiefer introduced clients involved in Soule v. Connecticut Association of Schools, B. P. J. v. West Virginia State Board of Education, and Hecox v. Little.
“It took incredible courage for women 50 years ago to fight for a level playing field in sports, and serving alongside these incredible female athletes has allowed me to experience a new generation with equal courage,” Kiefer said.
She introduced Selina Soule, Chelsea Mitchell, and Alanna Smith. During their time in high school, two male athletes were awarded 15 women’s state championship titles and set 17 new individual meet records.
Also present was Lainey Armistead, who won a soccer scholarship to West Virginia State University, and has since taken a stand in defense of the Save Women’s Sports Act, a West Virginia law. Madison Kenyon and Mary Kate Marshall, Idaho female collegiate athletes who support the state’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, were also in attendance.
“My dad was a soccer coach, and growing up I got to play against my brothers and against boys’ pickup teams. It was a lot of fun, but I knew when they were holding back because they were bigger, faster, and stronger than me,” Armistead said.
I asked when she first encountered the concept of transgenderism. “Probably high school,” she said. And how did she square that concept with her early experience of sex differences? “I knew the difference growing up with brothers and competing against men. There’s just a big difference in how our bodies are.”
As Kiefer outlined in her introduction:
Males are generally bigger, faster, and stronger. They have larger hearts and greater lung capacity, denser bones, and stronger muscles. These physical characteristics give males a 10 to 50 percent performance advantage over comparably fit and trained female athletes. That means that no amount of hormones or testosterone suppression can undo those physical advantages.
Someone asked: Why aren’t more female athletes speaking out?
“First of all, I think they are speaking out,” said Mary Kate Marshall, a competitive track athlete at Idaho State University. “I think that they’re kind of being swept under the rug and important voices aren’t being heard as loud . . . The scariest part about this is the initial step to do it. But once you do it, it’s nowhere near as scary. So to many people, I would tell them that they should speak out. It’s not scary and so many people are supporting us.”