The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), one of the governing bodies for college sports, made the announcement this week that it would not allow male-bodied athletes to compete in women’s sports, emphasizing the importance of “reasonable and healthy competition for all student-athletes.” In a world where this issue seems absurd, the choice is a welcome relief.
The NAIA governs 249 smaller, mainly private schools whose athletic programs would position in the NCAA’s Division 2 or 3 classes. The NCAA has since changed its own rules regarding transgender athletes’ eligibility to engage in women’s sports, and the NAIA’s new guideline on transgender participation comes after it has declined to understand or update its own rules. The NCAA currently mandates a sport-by-sport technique, which is largely dependent on what other sport governing bodies have already made their decisions.
The NCAA’s unwillingness to challenge clear guidelines on this is driven by timidity. As the NAIA made distinct this year, the issue of transgender involvement in women’s sports is never complicated. It’s actually quite simple. If men who identify as ladies but also enjoy the natural and physiological advantages of being men compete with less fortunate women? And should people be required to protect themselves in their private locations and at sporting activities to support these men?
The answer to any person whose common sense hasn’t been pummeled into submission by the Left would, of course, be “no”.
That response is likewise backed by constitutional law. And the NAIA’s judgment reflects this fact. We thought that the NAIA should first make fairness and competition. … We believe it even complies with the justification for Title IX being established. You’re allowed to include separate but equal opportunities for people to contend”, NAIA President Jim Carr explained.
However, that is the very reason Title IX was passed — to ensure that women were granted protection, security, and good contest, all of which are now being undermined by a radical philosophy that cares only about its own power.
The NAIA considered all of this when it debated the best way to deal with trans sports. The governing body spent nearly two years reviewing research, meeting with experts to better understand possible policy challenges, and getting feedback from various membership groups, according to Amy Novak, the head of the NAIA Council of Presidents. And all of the evidence pointed to one very simple solution: Men, no matter how they “identify”, cannot and should not be allowed to compete against women.
The result is a clear set of guidelines and expectations, approved in a unanimous vote by the NAIA’s Council of Presidents, that leaves no room for equivocating. For instance, unlike the NCAA, the NAIA’s standards do not make any exceptions for male-bodied athletes who stop taking testosterone and pass a certain hormonal threshold. Men will not be permitted to compete with women, period. Additionally, the regulations prohibit female athletes from beginning to take testosterone for women’s sports.
This is a fantastic step in the direction of ending the Left’s gender fetish, and it serves as an example for larger sports organizations to follow. Again, the underlying dissent is fairly straightforward: Do women have a right to safe competition and fair competition?
Kaylee McGhee White is the Washington Examiner’s editor of Restoring America, and she is an Independent Women’s Forum senior fellow.
