Forcing girls to compete against trans athletes is also DANGEROUS
Letting people who’ve gone through puberty as boys compete in girls’ and women’s sports isn’t just unfair, it can be dangerous.
As North Carolina lawmakers prepared to ban trans athletes from playing on female teams, they heard testimony from Hiwassee Dam HS senior Payton McNabb, who says she had to quit volleyball after a formerly male player spiked a ball into her face.
She’s playing softball now, she says, but not as well as she used to, as she still struggles with impaired vision, partial paralysis on the right side of her body, unremitting headaches, anxiety and depression — all results of that incident.
Yes, injuries are a risk in any sport, at any level.
But that doesn’t stop anyone from requiring protective gear, or weight classes for sports like boxing or wrestling.
And it’s common sense to apply similar restrictions to account for the known effects of testosterone: greater size, strength and so on.
“Allowing biological males to compete against biological females is dangerous,” McNab testified. “I may be the first to come before you with an injury, but if this doesn’t pass, I won’t be the last.”
Accommodating the feelings of trans athletes shouldn’t come at the cost of the safety (or dignity) of young women. That’s not hateful or cruel; it’s basic decency.
