ENDORSEMENT: PDE Action Endorses Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023

April 20, 2023

Enacted in 1972, Title IX is extraordinarily important for a variety of reasons, including fairness, safety, and privacy of female athletic competitors. It is clearly established¹ that biological males and biological females have different physiological and biological traits – not limited to bone structure, muscle mass, hemoglobin levels, and hormones – meaning that allowing biological males to participate in biological female athletic competitions puts biological females at a higher risk for mental and physical setbacks from injury, missed competitive opportunities, and limits their ability to seek awards and scholarships for athletics. Title IX has allowed biological females to compete on equal footing to biological males, paving the way for future biological female athletes. Over the last several decades, biological females have carved out a space for themselves in single-sex sports. Most recently, the NCAA 2023 biological female basketball finals surpassed biological male professional basketball with 12.6 million viewers.² However, the Biden Administration Proposed Rule threatens the lynch pin of biological sex keeping Title IX and its protections intact. The Rule endangers single-sex athletics, parental rights, free speech, fairness, and elementary anatomy and biology in favor of popular culture.

The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023 will reinforce the importance of single-sex athletic competitions through legislation. We support any changes that must be made to Title IX happen through Congress instead of by administrative overreach. In fact, many athletic competitions have come out in support of protecting biological female spaces in athletic competitions including World Athletics, World Rugby, World Aquatics, and Union Cycliste Internationale.³ Passing HR 734 will reaffirm our commitment to supporting the fairness, safety, and privacy of biological females, as many competitive biological female competitive leagues have already done to safeguard biological female sports for generations to come.

Citations

1 Blair, Martha L., “Sex-based differences in physiology: what should we teach in the medical curriculum?” Advances in Physiological Education, Vol. 31 No. 1, January 1, 2007, https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/advan.00118.2006 (accessed April 14, 2023).
2 https://deadline.com/2023/04/lsu-iowa-womens-college-basketball-ratings-espn-abc-1235317006/
3 Ortega, Rodrigo Perez, “World Athletics banned transgender women from competing. Does science support the rule?” April 4, 2023, https://www.science.org/content/article/world-athletics-banned-transgender-women-competing-does-science-support-rule (Accessed April 16, 2023).

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