Men vs. Women in New Jersey Athletics? It’s Happening, Thanks to NJ Dems. | Testa

Imagine: you just drove to your daughter’s high school tennis match, excited to watch her compete, when a player on the opposing team catches your eye. It’s me, a 6’2”, 200lb man with a five o’clock shadow and pink headband. That’s right, I’m the district’s newest brave trans athlete — and I came to win.

What sounds like an episode of South Park is becoming increasingly common in women’s sports across the country, from the middle school level to professional sports. In 2021, just across the Delaware River, Penn swimmer Lia Thomas, formerly William, began obliterating female records overnight after a lackluster men’s career, becoming the top female collegiate athlete in the 500 meter freestyle.

Should it be shocking to anyone that someone who is biologically male, went through puberty as a man, and trained at a collegiate level as a man for nearly three years would dominate in women’s sports? Of course not, but somehow activists have hijacked the argument about fairness in women’s sports and turned what should be an obvious truth — that biological men and women are, on the whole, built differently — into a national debate. And it’s happening in the Garden State as well, despite the laws of our nation preventing it.

Title IX was passed in 1972 to ensure girls and women are not discriminated against and have a fair playing field in sports. That level playing field is now in jeopardy with male athletes competing against women, ruining competitive integrity. That’s why I sponsored the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, to shield women’s sports from this assault and protect opportunities for female athletes in the Garden State.

To pretend that people with XX and XY chromosomes are going to perform the same on measures of physical force, speed and agility is downright insanity: anyone with eyes knows that any physically fit man is going to dominate at the highest level of women’s sports. As a former college tennis player, I know this myself.

Many on the Left will ask: why do you care so much? Why exclude transgender women from sports in their chosen gender? It’s simple: I enjoy women’s sports, I value fairness, I care about my girls and their future, and it is fundamentally unfair to have women and men playing sports against one another.

Does anyone think that the Women’s March Madness Tournament, culminating in a battle for the ages between the Caitlyn Clark-led Hawkeyes and the incredible depth chart of the LSU Tigers, would have been improved by the addition of a male college athlete? In any competitive sport, the success of one means the failure of others. Crowding out of the top of the sport with biological males robs women of their opportunity to achieve greatness, and defeats the purpose of women’s sports entirely.

So how do we stop the nonsense? It starts with the truth: biological women can only fairly compete against other biological women, and biological men can only fairly compete against biological men. Whether or not we consider transgender women to be women in other legal or social aspects is a conversation for another day: what I know is we can’t be destroying women’s sports to satisfy progressive activists’ latest fixation. If universities and schools aren’t going to do what’s right, we need legislation on the state side to protect women’s sports. The Fairness in Women’s Sports Act must pass, and I call on legislators from across New Jersey to vote for its passage.

I’ll keep fighting to protect women’s sports, because the truth and fairness matters — and so do opportunities for female athletes in New Jersey and across the country. Senator Michael L. Testa, Jr. is a State Senator representing New Jersey’s First Legislative District which includes Atlantic, Cape May, & Cumberland Counties. He is a dad, husband, and leader in fighting for the needs of New Jersey’s working families.

Michael Testa
About Michael Testa 10 Articles
MICHAEL TESTA serves New Jersey's 1st Legislative District - all of Cape May County and parts of Atlantic and Cumberland counties - in the State Senate.