{"id":380,"date":"2025-04-29T11:01:18","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T11:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sewellconsultancy.com\/?p=380"},"modified":"2025-04-30T10:34:46","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T10:34:46","slug":"transgender-athletes-should-not-be-allowed-to-play-with-girls-in-colorado-sports-opinion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.sewellconsultancy.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/29\/transgender-athletes-should-not-be-allowed-to-play-with-girls-in-colorado-sports-opinion\/","title":{"rendered":"Transgender athletes should not be allowed to play with girls in Colorado sports (Opinion)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor’s note: This column ran as a pro-con with another column that supported transgender athletes getting to play girls sports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n

The only two competitive activities I played in high school were coed — chess and speech and debate. I was the only girl on the chess team. It didn\u2019t matter. Neither sex enjoys an advantage in competitions like chess, spelling bees, science fairs, or debates. I\u2019m glad I played. Winning was a confidence builder for this nerdy girl and I continue to enjoy public speaking and chess to this day.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 environment.<\/p>\n

As a recent federal court case acknowledged, \u201cignoring fundamental biological truths between the two sexes deprives women and girls of meaningful access to educational facilities.\u201d To address inequities faced by some girls and women, President Donald Trump signed the \u201cKeeping Men Out of Women\u2019s Sports\u201d Executive Order<\/a> on February 5, 2025. The order recognizes that allowing biological males to compete in female sports is \u201cdemeaning, unfair, and dangerous to women and girls, and denies women and girls the equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports.\u201d<\/p>\n

It directs the U.S. Department of Education to uphold Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 and take enforcement action against \u201ceducational 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\u2019s category, to compete with or against or to appear unclothed before males.\u201d Educational institutions not in compliance with Title IX risk being investigated and losing their federal education funding.<\/p>\n

To avoid facing a loss of critical funds and other negative consequences, around 60 Colorado public school district administrators and school board members recently signed a letter imploring the Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA)<\/a>, the governing body for high school sports and other competitive activities in Colorado, to comply with the president\u2019s executive order.<\/p>\n

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 risk. CHSAA needs to revise its doctrines to restrict girls\u2019 and women\u2019s sports to biological females and to provide guidance to member schools on how they can comply with Title IX.<\/p>\n

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 environment. Schools would not be at risk of losing funding if in addition to protecting single sex sports for only biological males and only biological females, they provided coed team opportunities for those who wanted them and opted in voluntarily. That would be win-win solution for everyone.<\/p>\n

Krista L. Kafer is a weekly Denver Post columnist. Follow her on Twitter: @kristakafer.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sign up for Sound Off to get a weekly roundup of our columns, editorials and more. <\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online<\/a> or check out our guidelines<\/a> for how to submit by email or mail.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 activities I played in high school<\/p>\n

Continue reading <\/use> <\/svg>Transgender athletes should not be allowed to play with girls in Colorado sports (Opinion)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sewellconsultancy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sewellconsultancy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sewellconsultancy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sewellconsultancy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sewellconsultancy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.sewellconsultancy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":381,"href":"http:\/\/www.sewellconsultancy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380\/revisions\/381"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sewellconsultancy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.sewellconsultancy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sewellconsultancy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.sewellconsultancy.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}