[WesternJournal] Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds has signed a bill that restricts women’s and girls’ sports to athletes who are, in fact, women and girls, making the Hawkeye State the latest state to pass such legislation.The bill, HF 2416, requires that athletes enrolled in girls’ and women’s sports at both public and private schools and community colleges, as well as universities affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association and National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, be limited to athletes listed as female on their birth certificates.
"This is a victory for girls’ sports in Iowa. No amount of talent, training or effort can make up for the natural physical advantages males have over females. It’s simply a reality of human biology," Reynolds said Thursday while signing the bill, surrounded by smiling young women and girls. "Forcing females to compete against males is the opposite of inclusivity and it’s absolutely unfair."
"It worries me that this bill is needed at all. It’s hard to imagine how anyone who cares about the rights of women and girls could support anything less," she also said, according to NPR.
"The message that women are so much more than a hormone level, that the things girls love are worth protecting and their hard work and dedication is recognized and their dreams can become a reality," local track star Ainsley Erzen, who has been an outspoken proponent for protecting women’s and girl’s sports, said at the signing ceremony.
Iowa is the latest of several states to pass legislation protecting women’s sports. Last year was a record-breaking year for such legislation; 37 states drafted similar bills with Idaho, Montana, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Tennessee, West Virginia and Florida successfully passing measures restricting women and girls’ sports to female athletes only.
The issue has been drawing attention across the nation for some time, but college swimmer Lia Thomas of the University of Pennsylvania, who has been enjoying a wildly successful career on the women’s team after competing on the men’s team for three years, has brought the issue to the forefront in recent months.
Proponents of transgender athletes in women’s and girls’ sports were out in full force on Thursday as Reynolds signed the legislation, which Iowa’s Democrats unsuccessfully opposed.
Becky Smith, the executive director of the LGBT youth organization Iowa Safe Schools stood behind Reynolds and silently held up a transgender flag in what the group said was a display of solidarity for transgender athletes.
There’s an elephant in the room when it comes to transgender athletes competing in women’s sports — well, two, if you count the fact that legislation like this only ever targets women’s sports. It highlights the stark reality that absolutely no one thinks that female athletes will have an unfair advantage over male athletes if allowed to compete in men’s and boys’ sports. (Under HR 2416, female athletes who identify as male are still free to play on boys’ and men’s teams.)
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Related:
Transgender athletes: 2022-02-05 South Dakota bans transgender women from competing on female sports teams - the 10th state to do so: Lawmakers used record-smashing UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas as proof of unfair advantage
Transgender athletes: 2021-10-16 Texas House passes bill banning transgender athletes from participating in school sports based on their gender identity
Transgender athletes: 2021-08-03 Laurel Hubbard, transgender weightlifter, flops
Transgender athletes: 2022-02-05 South Dakota bans transgender women from competing on female sports teams - the 10th state to do so: Lawmakers used record-smashing UPenn swimmer Lia Thomas as proof of unfair advantage
Transgender athletes: 2021-10-16 Texas House passes bill banning transgender athletes from participating in school sports based on their gender identity
Transgender athletes: 2021-08-03 Laurel Hubbard, transgender weightlifter, flops