Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia (R-24), an experienced school administrator, is strongly backing the Roxbury Board of Education’s Monday decision to reject Policy 5756, the Murphy Administration’s transgender policy which she says undermines female athletes.
“It completely hurts our children. It targets female student athletes and rolls back decades of progress under Title IX,” said Fantasia, a freshman legislator from Sussex County. “It is a simple physiological fact that male athletes, biological males, are superior to their female counterparts. As a result, female students now face an increased risk of injury, loss of scholarships, loss of records and titles, loss of playing time and the list goes on and on.”
Roxbury board voted narrowly to reject the controversial policy, 5-4, one which the Murphy Administration originally misrepresented as a binding mandate.
“[These policies] make things unsafe for our females. Another example of zero common sense is separating students not based on physiology, but self-identification,” Fantasia added. “Think for a moment how unsettling it may be for a female to be alongside a biological male in a human sexuality lesson. She may feel intimidated. This may stifle her questions. Women are not second-class citizens. There are no longer safe spaces for girls; their privacy should be protected.”
Fantasia noted that 23 states have thus far restricted or outright barred males from playing in female sports. Nevertheless, Title IX’s failure to define “sex” and an ongoing federal debate leaves the future of girls’ sports on certain footing.
Fantasia is a primary sponsor of the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act” (A775) which would add New Jersey to the lists of states requiring that a youth athlete’s enrollment on a team align with his or her biological sex.
