Davis library forum held to discuss trans people in female sports
By HANNAH SCHRADER — city@theaggie.org
The Moms for Liberty Yolo County chapter held a public forum with guest speakers on April 13 to discuss alleged gender discrimination in the California Interscholastic Federation’s (CIF) policy. The event was held at the Mary L. Stephens Davis Library, lasting from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., was free and open to the public.
One of the first speakers was Kim Jones, a co-founder of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports. Jones discussed alleged inequities in female sports.
“A culture either chooses to celebrate and respect women or it chooses to subjugate women,” Jones said. “Sport is a microcosm of society, and women’s sport is a reflection of how we value women in society. The fundamental question that we are asking right now is, do women and girls deserve access to fair sports?”
Jones then used an anecdote of an adult competing with a child to portray the alleged unfairness that arises when transgender women, referred to as the adult, compete in the women category, referred to as the child, of their respective sport.
“Advantage is not determined by finish,” Jones said. “If a ten-year-old beats a thirty-year-old [in a competition], the thirty-year-old still has a massive advantage with a fully mature and developed body. And yes, this happens: I was this ten-year-old. The results simply show that the [ten-year-old] did not have enough of an advantage to compensate for the skill, training and talent of a [thirty-year-old.]”
Towards the end of her speech, Jones claimed that a majority of women support sex screening in female sports. Sex screening is the process by which athletes have to have their biological sex verified to be eligible for a sport.
“When asked, women in sports want sex screening and a protected female category over 80 to 90 percent of the time,” Jones said. “In summary, this issue is not complicated. It’s actually very simple, but it is contentious because the concept of gender identity is in direct conflict with the objective realities. You have to choose one.”
The next speaker was Richard Wharton, an elite and development cycling coach, who discussed his personal anecdotes of observed anatomical differences between men and women in the sport of cycling.
“We’ve got a spirometer alright […], and I challenge any genetic, biological, physiological male to go up against any genetic, biological, physiological female and compare your lung capacity,” Wharton said. “It’s not even close.”
The next speaker was Beth Bourne, chair of the Moms for Liberty Yolo County chapter. She discussed a supposed tool called the “gender-bread man” that is used in schools to teach students about gender expression.
“This is the gender-bread person,” Bourne said. “This is one of the first images that kids start to see in their health and their science classes starting about fifth grade. It tells kids that your identity, your gender identity is something in your brain and that your biological sex is something in their body parts, and that their gender identity is somewhere between womanness and manness.”
Later in her speech, Bourne made clear her disdain for people who articulate their pronouns.
“And this is one of my favorites, which is the use of pronouns,” Bourne said. “If I see pronouns on your email, I’ll still try to read it, but usually it means I don’t.”
Bourne then closed out her speech, reiterating her condemnation of schools teaching gender-inclusive curricula.
“I’ve got all kinds of information about library books, school curriculum and what’s happening in our schools,” Bourne said. “I just want to say, we’ve just got to do what we can to help our kids know that they’re being lied to and that there’s no child that’s born in the wrong body. And this idea that you can play sports as a different gender — that doesn’t make sense.”
Written by: Hannah Schrader — city@theaggie.org
