Transgender athletes should not be allowed to play with girls in Colorado sports (Opinion)

Editor s note This column ran as a pro-con with another column that supported transgender athletes getting to play girls sports The only two competitive exercises I played in high school were coed chess and speech and debate I was the only girl on the chess company It didn t matter Neither sex enjoys an advantage in competitions like chess spelling bees science fairs or debates I m glad I played Winning was a confidence builder for this nerdy girl and I continue to enjoy society speaking and chess to this day While gender neutrality is the exception in intellectual competitions it is the exception in physical competitions where males enjoy advantages owing to higher levels of testosterone and heavier musculature and bone structure which give them greater strength and speed The physical advantages of heavier bones and muscles remain even when boys take hormone blockers When biological males identify as transgender girls and are allowed to compete with biological females in single sex sports their physical advantages make it more likely they will win depriving actual girls trophies rightfully theirs Girls are denied the confidence-building opportunities and enhancements to their college applications that only come with winning Female students are also more likely to get injured when competing with biological males than they are in a single sex habitat As a current federal court situation acknowledged ignoring fundamental biological truths between the two sexes deprives women and girls of meaningful access to educational facilities To address inequities faced by a few girls and women President Donald Trump signed the Keeping Men Out of Women s Sports Executive Order on February The order recognizes that allowing biological males to compete in female sports is demeaning unfair and dangerous to women and girls and denies women and girls the equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports It directs the U S Department of Teaching to uphold Title IX of the Tuition Amendments Act of and take enforcement action against educational institutions including athletic associations composed of or governed by such institutions that deny female students an equal opportunity to participate in sports and athletic events by requiring them in the women s category to compete with or against or to appear unclothed before males Educational institutions not in compliance with Title IX danger being investigated and losing their federal schooling funding To avoid facing a loss of critical funds and other negative consequences around Colorado community school district administrators and school board members in the past few days signed a letter imploring the Colorado High School Sessions Association CHSAA the governing body for high school sports and other competitive programs in Colorado to comply with the president s executive order Their letter points out that because CHSAA allows boys who identify as transgender girls to compete as girls the organization is putting Colorado schools at pitfall CHSAA requirements to revise its doctrines to restrict girls and women s sports to biological females and to provide guidance to member schools on how they can comply with Title IX If CHSAA is concerned that boys or girls who identify as the opposite sex would lose opportunities to play sports they could open a third category of gender neutral teams for students who wish to play in all-gender circumstances Schools would not be at vulnerability of losing funding if in addition to protecting single sex sports for only biological males and only biological females they provided coed company opportunities for those who wished them and opted in voluntarily That would be win-win resolution for everyone Krista L Kafer is a weekly Denver Post columnist Follow her on Twitter kristakafer Sign up for Sound Off to get a weekly roundup of our columns editorials and more To send a letter to the editor about this article submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail