Despite the elegantly egalitarian language in the Wyoming Constitution, “…all members of the human race are equal,” that is not always the case in every aspect of the real world. Our Constitution itself qualifies that assertion by confining human equality to the exercise of political rights.
To claim that all human beings are equal in all instances is to ignore the facts before the eyes. While politically equal, humans vary wildly their physical, intellectual and emotional qualities. No written law can change that.
With that reality in mind, I stand respectfully with the Wyoming women who do not want biological males in their sororities or competing with them in athletics.
I can appreciate that some biological males prefer vacuuming in an apron instead of tinkering with a lawnmower. There’s nothing wrong with that. After all, the rug needs cleaned and the lawn needs mowed.
Where I draw the line, and where I believe that women draw the line, is when someone born with male genitalia and a masculine endocrine system tries to impose himself in a women’s world simply because of his self-identification as a woman. Yes, “his.”
I know, I know….this attitude of mine flies in the face of current gender ideology and progressive political theory. But for those tempted to call me a macho troglodyte, please know that I got here honestly, through decades of experience in the real world.
I have coached perhaps a thousand kids, aged 6 through 15, in several sports in Wyoming. Until puberty the young athletes, boys and girls, are pretty much the same in physical performance. But the bodily changes brought about by adolescent growth spurts give boys clear athletic advantages during those years.
Maturing males have no business competing with females, especially in contact sports. That is not based on politics or sociology, but on the real world. Males develop greater muscle mass, greater dimensions and density of bones and ligaments and larger cardio-pulmonary capacity. Aggression increases.
Little boys and girls can play soccer or basketball just fine with each other and everyone has fun. When they get older, the boys will dominate the field of play and the girls can get injured. A law cannot be written to change that fact.
Regardless of make-up, footwear and gender self-identity, a 230-pound male has no business playing on a team of 100-pound girls in a contact sport that is often violent. No amount of sensitivity training will change my mind on this point.
And another thing.
Biological males should be excluded from all-female organizations such as the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority at UW. No matter how firmly he is convinced that he is a woman, he is still a dude doing sleepovers in a houseful of women. That chubby in his yoga pants as he watched his sisters undress was a dead giveaway. He is a biological male.
For anyone who wants to debate that “separate but equal” went out with the Jim Crow South and the Civil Rights Act of 1964, you’re on. You’ll lose. If anyone wants to debate the “free association” clause in the Bill of Rights as a rationale for male inclusion on female athletic teams or sororities, you’re on, too. And you’ll lose.
There are clear instances in our world where males and females should be separate but equal, regardless of the gender-fluid philosophy du jour. Perhaps all-trans sports teams and sororities is the answer.
I have absolutely no problem with drag queen bingo, pride parades or guys going to the bar in tutus. That, to me, is a healthy and entertaining aspect of human diversity. I know it makes some of you cringe, but to each his/her own.
But for men, born with male genitalia and all that follows, who identify as women, to insert themselves into an all-women world and cause harm is something that causes this cowboy’s hackles to raise.
