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Where Are the Dads Protecting Their Daughters from Dangerous Male Athletes?


BY: ZACHARY METTLER | MARCH 14, 2024

Read more at https://thefederalist.com/2024/03/14/where-are-the-fathers-protecting-their-daughters-against-dangerous-male-athletes/

girls at swim meet

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ZACHARY METTLER

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It’s often said that the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. Of late, too many seemingly good men have done nothing to protect their daughters from transgender-identified athletes competing in girls’ sporting events. Let’s not mince words. These male athletes are harming and hurting their daughters under the guise of “equality” and “fairness.”

Just last week, a Massachusetts high school girls’ basketball team forfeited a game after a male on the opposing team injured three female players. The team decided to forfeit because the injured girl’s female teammates were afraid of getting hurt themselves.

The girls made the right call, to be sure. But why was it necessary in the first place? And why was it up to teenage girls to make that call?

Last year, also in Massachusetts, a male high school field hockey player, identifying as a girl, hit a ball so hard it knocked out a female player’s teeth. Video of the incident shows the female player crumpling to the ground and shrieking as her teammates cover their mouths with their hands and walk around in shock.

Every time I see another story like this — and the number of incidents is surging — I wonder: Where were their fathers? Why have so few fathers, especially after their daughters were injured by a male, stepped forward and said, “Not on my watch”?

Recently, former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines shared a similar sentiment, telling Joe Rogan on his podcast, “I thought someone with political power, someone within the NCAA — quite honestly, I thought someone’s dad — would come down there and yank this man out of our locker rooms.”

Yet it never happened. “I’m standing on the podium, and we’re clapping, and we’re smiling, and we’re cheering, and it hit me, I’m like, what in the world are we clapping for?” she said.

How many injured female athletes will it take for one father to stand up and manfully assert, “Enough is enough. I refuse to let my daughter be physically harmed by a male in her sport.”

How far men should go to protect their daughters is a conversation that needs to be had. But to have that conversation, first, men must do somethingAnything.

Even when men competing against women doesn’t cause female athletes bodily harm, it is no less unjust. In New Jersey, transgender-identified swimmer Megan Cortez-Fields competed for three years on the Ramapo College men’s swimming team before switching to the women’s team. He’s since set school records in the women’s 200 Individual Medley.

Over the course of three years in Connecticut, two male athletes broke 17 girls’ track meet records, took more than 85 opportunities to advance to the next level of competition, and won 15 women’s state track championship titles. It’s past time for women to stop paying the price for men taking away their places, their awards, and their health and safety.

Women should not be forced to sacrifice their bodies on the altar of political correctness. It’s time for men to do their duty and confront other men — even if those men identify as women. Call a spade a spade and do not apologize for doing so.

Now consider the most vocal advocates for women’s sports. Think about those activists who are boldly standing up for truth, common sense, and women’s safety. Here’s a few: J.K. Rowling, Riley Gaines, Megyn Kelly, Selina Soule, Alanna Smith, Ashley Nicoletti, and Bethany Hamilton. Notice a pattern? They’re all women. And good for them, because the more women who stand up and speak out, the better. But where are the men?

In his book The Abolition of Man, C.S. Lewis spoke about men who lack conviction and fortitude. “We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise,” Lewis wrote. “It is not excess of thought but defect of fertile and generous emotion that marks them out. Their heads are no bigger than the ordinary: it is the atrophy of the chest beneath that makes them seem so.”

Such could be said of the state of America’s men today. We’re too comfortable. We’re too apathetic. And we’re too nice. We could use a little more righteous indignation from America’s men.

Perhaps I’m just old-fashioned, but I was raised to respect and care for women. I know that men are supposed to protect and provide for their families. I refuse to stand idly by as the women of America suffer at the hands of men.

If you’re a father who’s still reticent to stand up for your daughter, here’s a suggestion: Don’t go it alone. Join forces with other fathers. The Good Book says, “Though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him — a threefold cord is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:12).

Courage is contagious. So, fathers of America, the ball is in your court. Your daughters are waiting for you to protect and take care of them. This is your job. This is your responsibility. This is your duty.


Zachary Mettler works as a staff writer and communications liaison for the Daily Citizen at Focus on the Family. In his role, he writes about current political issues, U.S. history, political philosophy, and culture. Mettler earned his Bachelor’s degree from William Jessup University and is an alumnus of the Young Leaders Program at The Heritage Foundation. In addition to the Daily Citizen, his written pieces have appeared in the Daily Wire, the Washington Times, the Washington Examiner, Newsweek, Townhall, the Daily Signal, the Christian Post, Charisma News and other outlets.

Judge sides with trans-identified boys as female athletes’ high-profile case is dismissed


Reported By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter| Monday, April 26, 2021

Read more at https://www.christianpost.com/news/judge-tosses-lawsuit-challenging-conn-trans-athlete-policy.html/

Selina Soule | Alliance Defending Freedom

A federal judge has tossed out a high-profile lawsuit filed on behalf of four female athletes suing to stop a Connecticut high school athletics association policy allowing biological males who identify as females to compete in girls’ sports at the K-12 level. Lawyers representing the athletes plan to appeal the ruling.

Judge Robert Chatigny, a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, issued a ruling Sunday determining that the lawsuit filed against the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference and the Connecticut Association of Schools was “not justiciable at this time.” 

He contends that “courts across the country have consistently held that Title IX requires schools to treat transgender students consistent with their gender identity.” 

Appointed to the bench by former President Bill Clinton, Chatigny faced criticism last year from Alliance Defending Freedom, the legal nonprofit representing the plaintiffs, for telling ADF attorneys to refer to biological male athletes as “transgender females.” His insistence that the attorneys avoid referring to the athletes as “males” led to demands that he be removed from the case due to a lack of impartiality. But those calls went unanswered. The plaintiffs, who were all high school students when the lawsuit was filed, contend that allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports violates Title IX, which was designed to provide equal opportunities for females in education. 

ADF announced the intention to appeal the ruling Sunday, stating that its lawyers “will continue to challenge the policy before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit.”

“Our clients — like all female athletes — deserve access to fair competition; that means authentically equal opportunities to compete, achieve, and win. But competition is no longer fair when males are permitted to compete in girls’ sports,” said ADF Legal Counsel Christina Holcomb. 

“Males will always have inherent physical advantages over comparably talented and trained girls; that’s the reason we have girls’ sports in the first place. Unfortunately, this court has chosen to ignore our clients’ demoralizing experience of losing to male runners.”

Holcomb argued that while the case centers on female athletes in Connecticut, there is more at stake. 

“Girls and women deserve opportunities that are truly equal — without being sidelined or dominated by males choosing to join their sport,” she added.

According to the ADF, Selina Soule, Chelsea Mitchell, Alanna Smith and Ashley Nicoletti have been “deprived” of “honors and opportunities to compete at elite levels.” Mitchell would have won the 2019 state championship in the women’s 55-meter indoor track competition, ADF reports. However, two biological male competitors took first and second place. Meanwhile, Soule, Smith and Nicoletti “have been denied medals and/or advancement opportunities.”

The ruling states:

“Chelsea Mitchell would have finished first in four elite events in 2019, and qualified for the 2017 New England Regional Championship in the Women’s 100m; (2) Selina Soule would have advanced to the next level of competition in the 2019 CIAC State Open Championship in the Women’s Indoor 55m; (3) Ashley Nicoletti would have qualified to run in the 2019 CIAC Class S Women’s Outdoor 100m; and (4) Alanna Smith would have finished second in the Women’s 200m at the 2019 State Outdoor Open.”

ADF states that due to CIAC’s policy, two males were permitted to compete in girls’ athletic competitions starting in the 2017 track season, who have taken 15 women’s state championship titles previously held by nine different girls between 2017-2019. The law group contends that the two athletes have taken away 85 opportunities to participate in higher-level competitions from female track athletes from 2017 to 2019. 

“Today’s decision ignores the unfairness of the CIAC’s policy, which allows biological males who identify as female to compete in the girls’ category,” said Soule, one of the four athletes who challenged Connecticut’s policy. “During all four years of high school, I worked incredibly hard to shave fractions of a second off my time, only to lose to athletes who had an unfair physical advantage.” 

“I don’t want any other girl to experience the pain and heartbreak I had to go through, and I will continue to stand up for fairness in women’s sports for as long as it takes,” she vowed.

Smith, another plaintiff, described the decision as “disheartening for athletes like me who train hard every day to be our physical and mental best at the starting block.”

According to Smith, “biological unfairness does not go away because of what someone believes about gender identity.”

“Biology — not identity — is what matters on the field, and that’s why I will continue to stand up to restore fairness to my sport,” she said. 

Mitchell called the ruling “discouraging,” claiming the judge “ruled to dismiss my right to compete on a level playing field.”

“Today’s ruling ignores the physical advantages that male athletes have over female athletes,” she argues. “Female athletes like me should have the opportunity to excel and compete fairly. No girl should have to settle into her starting blocks knowing that, no matter how hard she works, she doesn’t have a fair shot at victory.”

Nicoletti warned that girls like her “have suffered countless losses because of the CIAC’s policy.”

“[A]nd today’s ruling ignores this fact,” she stated. “I will continue to tell my story and fight for fairness in women’s sports.”

While female athletes decried Sunday’s decision, LGBT activists reacted very favorably to Chatigny’s ruling. 

“This is good news for transgender students in Connecticut and around the country,” declared ACLU Staff Attorney Joshua Block in a statement. “Today’s ruling shows that allowing transgender students to participate in school — including sports — is consistent with existing federal law. This is yet another sign that lawmakers attacking trans youth in states around the country have no legal basis for their claims.”

Additionally, Rahsaan Yearwood, the father of one of the two biological male athletes who now identify as females who are also named defendants in the lawsuit, cheered the decision.

“One of our most marginalized communities has the opportunity to rejoice in their authentic being and feel affirmed in doing so,” Yearwood was quoted as saying. 

As the debate about women’s sports continues across the U.S., several states have passed laws restricting participation in women’s sports to biological females. This year alone, Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee have already passed such laws. State lawmakers in more than two dozen other states have introduced similar legislation.

Meanwhile, Democrats in Congress want to pass the Equality Act, which would codify nondiscrimination protections for the LGBT community into federal law. Critics of the sweeping legislative initiative argue that the protection from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity will require biological males who identify as females to compete on sports teams that correspond with their gender identity as opposed to their biological sex.

Even though the Equality Act has failed to become law because of opposition from both Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Senate, President Joe Biden has already signed an executive order prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. 

“Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports,” the order stated.

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