The United States recently recognized the 50th anniversary of Title IX to celebrate the federal civil rights law solidifying women’s protections from discrimination in education.
The law, which went into effect in 1972, can be credited for expanding opportunities for women’s sports at the high school, collegiate and professional levels.
Last week, President Joe Biden proposed reforms to Title IX that would pave the way for biological males, who identify as women due to elective surgical or hormonal treatments, to compete in female sports.
The Biden administration’s rule proposals “make clear that preventing someone from participating in school programs and activities consistent with their gender identity would cause harm in violation of Title IX, except in some limited areas set out in the statute or regulations.”
The president’s proposal sparked immense backlash from conservatives, who pointed to the widely acknowledged scientific fact that males enjoy significant physical advantages over females, such as height and muscle composition.
Last year, Gov. Kay Ivey signed a bill sponsored by State Rep. Scott Stadthagen (R-Hartselle) to protect women’s sports from the left’s culture crusade. House Bill 391 requires student-athletes to compete in sports according to their birth gender.
In response to Biden’s proposed Title IX reforms, Stadthagen, who is one of the Alabama Legislature’s leading social conservatives, declared that the president had launched “a war to destroy” the federal civil rights law.
“Last week, I watched in disgust as President Biden vowed to expand Title IX to include biological males in female sports under the label of ‘transgender acceptance,'” lamented Stadthagen. “The truth is that Biden is not attempting to expand Title IX, he is launching a war to destroy it.”
“For nearly 50 years, the participation in women’s sports has increased exponentially, largely due to Title IX. Female athletes are now competing at the professional level in basketball, golf and soccer, just to name a few,” noted the lawmaker. “Thousands of female athletes are receiving a college education as the result of athletic scholarships. All of these opportunities will be harmed by any edict mandating that biological men, posing as women, be allowed to compete in women’s sports.”
According to Stadthagen, female athletes stand to lose scholarship opportunities as a result of Biden’s proposal.
“These men will rob female athletes, not only of victories, but of scholarship opportunities,” he advised. “The number of girls who will be unable to pursue a college education due to being ‘beaten out’ by a biological male posing as a female is yet unknown, but it will happen if Biden gets his way.”
Stadthagen stated his intentions to continue combating the left’s efforts that he asserted would end “fair competition in women’s sports.”
“Last year, I sponsored and passed legislation to protect the integrity of women’s athletics in Alabama,” he continued. “The bill, which was signed by the Governor and is now law in our state prohibits the intrusion of biological males in women’s sports.”
Stadthagen concluded, “In Alabama, we are doing everything possible to protect women’s rights from a Democrat Party and a Presidential Administration that seems hell-bent on ending fair competition in women’s sports. In Alabama, we will fight to ensure that doesn’t happen and I am ready to take on that fight for my daughter, my constituents and for the love of sports.”
Dylan Smith is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL
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