by James C. Sherlock
Every Virginia Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives voted against a bill to amend Title IX to prohibit biological boys and men from competing against biological girls and women in K-12 and college sports.
Voting nay: Donald Beyer, Gerald Connolly, Jennifer McClellan, Bobby Scott, Abigail Spanberger and Jennifer Wexton.
H.R. 734 Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023 amends Title IX (“on the basis of sex”) by stating that the term “sex” in athletics shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.
The consequences of a no vote. H.R. 734 protects the dreams and hard work of girls who wish to play college sports.
The ones who got up early and stayed late training for their sport. The ones whose parents ferried them to practice and games on weekends.
It protects girls and young women in contact sports such as soccer and field hockey from inevitable injury from bigger, stronger, faster men.
Indeed, it protects their ability to participate.
It prevents the biological male who never won a medal from deciding — no hormones or surgery required — he is female to mount the platform and be awarded the gold. To break records set by girls and women.
To get rich with the new NIL rule in college sports and richer yet in women’s professional sports.
Everyone who thinks that won’t happen, raise your hand.
Not including the women with their hands already raised celebrating their 2019 FIFA World Cup victory in the photo above.
It protects girls and young women against the type of devastating injury suffered by volleyball player Payton McNabb, a senior at Hiwassee Dam High School in Murphy, North Carolina, who suffered a concussion and neck injury during a game in September when a trans athlete sent the ball into her face.
House Democrats opposed the bill unanimously. Every Virginia Democrat in that body voted “no.”
Four of the six have daughters. The votes were undeniably anti-girl/woman.
The world is coming apart at its very seams.
Title IX is codified as Public Law No. 92‑318, 86 Stat. 235 (June 23, 1972), codified at 20 U.S.C. §§ 1681–1688.
To quote the Biden Department of Education:
Title IX applies to schools, local and state educational agencies, and other institutions that receive federal financial assistance from the Department.
These recipients include approximately 17,600 local school districts, over 5,000 postsecondary institutions, and charter schools, for-profit schools, libraries, and museums. Also included are vocational rehabilitation agencies and education agencies of 50 states, the District of Columbia, and territories of the United States.
The authors of H.R. 734 agree with that. That is why the Biden interpretation is so dangerous.
The achievements of Title IX in women’s sports. From How Title IX Transformed Women’s Sports:
In 1972, there were just over 300,000 women and girls playing college and high school sports in the United States. Female athletes received 2 percent of college athletic budgets, while athletic scholarships for women were virtually nonexistent.
From The Washington Post in June of 2022, the 50th anniversary of Title IX:
The National Federation of State High School Associations says almost 3.5 million girls played high school sports in 2018-2019. More than 200,000 women play sports in college. That’s 44 percent of all college athletes.
In addition, there are millions of girls who play soccer, softball, basketball and many other sports every day across the United States.
If those girls don’t get the chance to play, they might not become the high school, college, professional or Olympian athletes of the future.
H.R. 734
was offered to protect those gains on the basis of sex against a Biden administration determined to attack them on the basis of gender identity.
From the AP:
The sponsor, Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., highlighted the case of Emma Weyant, a resident of his district and a 2020 member of the U.S. Olympic swimming team who finished second in the NCAA women’s 500-yard freestyle championship last year. She was defeated by Lia Thomas, who had competed for three years on the University of Pennsylvania men’s swimming team before joining the women’s team.
Democrats said every child regardless of gender identity deserves the opportunity to belong to a team and that preventing competitors from doing so sends the message that they don’t matter.
But the last sentence quotes Democrats lying by omission.
By voting against this bill, Democrats say that biological boys who identify as transgender deserve the opportunity to belong to a girls team. That is the Biden position.
It is not a small distinction.
H.R. 734 amends Title IX to eliminate that interpretation.
It prohibits school athletic programs from allowing individuals whose biological sex at birth was male to participate in programs that are for women or girls.
The opportunity offered to biological boys by H.R. 734 is to try out for the boys teams.
Shower with them, not the freshman girls.
Bostock v Clayton County. The claim that gender identity is an instantiation of the term “sex” under Title IX is the current official interpretation of the Biden Administration.
They assert that claim is supported by a 2020 Supreme Court opinion on Title VII, Bostock v. Clayton County, an employment practices case. They recently got their hats handed to them by a federal judge.
Tennessee v. Department of Education. The Biden interpretation of Bostock has been enjoined by a federal judge in THE STATE OF TENNESSEE, et al., ) Plaintiffs, v. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, et al., Defendants.
The judge in Tennessee cited the Sixth Circuit:
Bostock extends no further than Title VII.
The Sixth Circuit has also recognized, “it does not follow that principles announced in the Title VII context automatically apply in the Title IX context.” Meriwether v. Hartop, 922 F.3d 492, 510 n.4 (6th Cir. 2021).
The judge also found with regards to Bostock:
The (Supreme) Court expressly declined to “prejudge” other issues that might be implicated by Title VII, such as “sex-segregated bathrooms, locker rooms, and dress codes.”
The Tennessee ruling in part:
Therefore, in applying Bostock to Title IX, the Department overlooked the caveats expressly recognized by the Supreme Court and created new law.
Thus that the “interpretation” was in fact legislative, not administrative. Ouch.
That:
Plaintiffs (9 states) can show that the Department of Education’s guidance creates rights for students and obligations for regulated entities not to discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender identity that appear nowhere in Bostock, Title IX, or its implementing regulations.
Finally:
it is hereby ordered that Federal Defendants and all their respective officers, agents, employees, attorneys, and persons acting in concert or participation with them are ENJOINED and RESTRAINED from implementing the Interpretation, Dear Educator Letter, Fact Sheet, and the Technical Assistance Document against Plaintiffs
Read all of the MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER in Tennessee to learn a great deal about this issue.
Those six Virginia Democrats could have done so. That injunction was filed July 15, 2022.
Bottom line. There is absolutely no question that if H.R. 734 becomes law, girls and women will be protected in their participation in sports at the K-12 and college levels.
The Biden court filings on the other hand, under appeal to the Sixth Circuit, if ultimately successful would result in the Biden interpretation of Title IX under which:
- girls and women in sports are threatened physically by the participation of biological males on their sports teams;
- girls and women risk biological boys and men occupying their changing rooms and showers (see the government source documents in Tennessee);
- biological males will take their spots on those teams;
- biological males will take their medals;
- biological males will take their scholarships to college; and
- biological males will earn the money from NIL and professional careers that females currently do.
If those six Virginia Democrats think that won’t happen, they are willfully ignorant of current events.
Lia Thomas, the transgender swimmer at the University of Pennsylvania, won the NCAA championships in the 500-yard race in March 2022.
Thomas defeated UVa freshman Emma Weyant by 1.75 seconds with a time of 4:33.24.
Thomas swam for three years at Penn as a male before transitioning, sat out a year after he graduated while undergoing testosterone suppression treatment and returned to compete as a woman.
H.R. 734 would stop all of that by law.
So let’s look at who voted no. I can find no public statement from any of them about why they voted as they did.
- Abigail Spanberger. Ms. Spanberger presented herself as a centrist to win re-election. She has three school-age daughters.
She has posted on her website a ton of stories about herself. Nothing about her vote on H.B. 734. Nothing in her section on education updates. Nothing in the women’s issues section.
Perhaps she will link to this article.
- Jennifer McClellan. One daughter.
- Jennifer Wexton. Presents herself as a centrist. Two sons.
- Donald Beyer. Three daughters.
- Gerald Connolly. One daughter.
- Bobby Scott. No children.
I choose not to believe that they do not love their daughters and granddaughters and want them to have safe opportunities to play sports.
So, I have to credit the Democratic party for its ability to impose ironclad discipline, if not humanity, in successfully whipping the votes of every House Democrat against the undeniable best interests of their own daughters and granddaughters. In support of dogma.
If that is not a religion, I have never seen one.
The citizens of Virginia, the Virginia press, their Republican opponents in Congressional races and feminists (whatever happened to Democratic feminists?) must ask these Virginia members of Congress to explain their votes.
Perhaps they will also predict for us what the photo of the 2039 US Women’s National Team will look like if the Biden interpretation and guidance is allowed to stand.
Updated Apr 23, 2023 at 2030 to provide the Lia Thomas example.
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