Most left-leaning sources would like us to believe that gender is merely a social structure and that those who struggle with gender dysphoria should have the ability to receive affirming care. Unfortunately, the search for affirmation has led to an ignorance of reality which encroaches upon every American’s freedom of conscience. What began as a plea for acceptance has evolved into a demand for agreement which violates every fiber of the Constitution. The concept that one’s opinion, whether based on emotion, feeling, or perception, should be treated as valid grounds for lawmaking is an extremely dangerous idea infiltrating United States legislatures. The Save Women’s Sports bill was thrown out of the Virginia Senate subcommittee hearing, and there is yet no law protecting women from competing against biological men in the state.
On February 1st, 2024, I and three other ambassadors from Young Women for America demonstrated our support for the Save Women’s Sports Act before the Virginia Senate. The proposed bill would prohibit federally-funded schools from allowing biological males to compete in women’s and girl’s athletics. Testimonies by those opposing the bill were foundationless and emotionally driven. ‘Just let the kids play,’ they insisted. This oversimplified argument has far-reaching implications; allowing the gender-dysphoric youth of America to ‘just play’ in order to gain a sense of fulfillment and inclusion minimizes the collective impact on all athletes. Nor do the resulting consequences of this action end with athletics; in fact, setting a legal precedent that sex is a subjective and emotional concept will create a society that ignores any and all physical realities.
Virginia is not the only state deliberating on this controversial issue. Currently, lawmakers in states all across the nation have proposed bills to either allow or prohibit transgender ‘women’ from competing in female athletics. Cases of transgender ‘women’ beating biological women by longshots, post-pubescent men breaking records in female athletics, and the mental and emotional trauma experienced by young women and girls having to compete and share dressing spaces with men are tragic, and on the rise.
If legislatures continue to rule against biological females, a dangerous precedent will become further established. Individuals would be able to choose their sex based on feelings rather than scientifically-based evidence. These attempts by legislatures reject the foundational truth that anatomical and chromosomal distinctions indicate an individual’s sex. Even at the cellular level, distinctions. The rejection of such a clear biological reality should not be enshrined in law, especially when it endangers other citizens.
Simply ‘letting the kids play’ is not the solution. Behind this seemingly guileless statement are thousands of female athletes shoved to the sidelines where men in womanface are robbing them of titles and awards, as well as the right to dress themselves amongst other women. At an even deeper level, this is a full fledged rejection of truth.
The trend of choosing feeling over fact and emotion over reality could easily spill over to other similar attributes, such as age or race. If a man were to be able to join a female college sports team because he identified as a woman, what’s to say that he couldn’t join an elementary classroom because he identified as an eight-year-old? If the rationale of the transgender movement was applied to other areas of public life, the chaos would be immediately evident.
In fact, the United States has already experienced cases of transracialism, most notably those of Rachel Dolezal and Adam Wheeler. Dolezal and Wheeler, both white individuals claiming to be African American and Filipino respectively, received quite a few accusations of cultural appropriation from the left, with critics connecting their “identities” to trends of racial mockery, such as blackface. In spite of the backlash even from transgender supporters, transracialism and transgenderism essentially demand the same thing: that society would confirm an identity that contradicts both visible physical and unseen genetic facts, regardless of any differing convictions or larger consequences.
Should the increase in transgenderism, especially in the realm of athletics, create a legal resolution that values self-perpetrated identity over reality, similar social movements are destined to gain acceptance. After all, transgenderism only recently became a socially acceptable standard. To set the expectation that a statute meant to apply to every American citizen can be disregarded and thrown out on the wind of a feeling is absolutely absurd. One thing is clear: the ramifications of failing to protect women would snowball into an issue with far more serious consequences.
The Old Testament Prophet Jeremiah warns that, “the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure” (Jer.17:9). Some inclinations of the human heart, such as the desire to switch genders, cannot be trusted, as they are fickle and prone to change. True identity is not found in a sexual orientation, gender ideology, or in fact any biological category or genetic makeup. Instead, it is found in Christ, in whose image every human being is beautifully and wonderfully made. Individuals with gender dysphoria certainly deserve the utmost sympathy, but there is nothing sympathetic about rejecting the truth.
Thankfully, twenty-three states have passed legislation relegating transgender individuals to sports teams in accordance with their biological sex. Yet there is much more work to be done in this area. This is not an issue exclusive to women; it is a fight for the preservation of truth itself.
