Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) maintained the distinction between the sexes while addressing critics of her Protect Women’s Sports Act in a Twitter video published on Sunday.
Gabbard introduced the above-mentioned legislation with Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) on Thursday. The bill proposes the restriction of federal funds from schools allowing boys and men to compete against girls and women in sports.
Gabbard identified broad physical advantages held by men relative to women as a rationale to segregate the sexes in the context of sports to preserve “a level playing field.”
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Males have “a biological and physiological advantage in a sport based on physical strength and speed,” Gabbard noted. “It’s a fact, biological males hold a physical advantage over biological females when it comes to sports.
Gabbard remarked:
This is specifically why Title IX’s sex-based segregation in sport was created, so I introduced science-based legislation called the Protect Women’s Sports Act that clarifies, upholds, and strengthens the original intent of Title IX.
It ensures a level playing field for girls and women competing in sports. As I said before, Title IX intentionally created an exception to nondiscrimination laws out of that recognition of a biological difference between men and women.
Now, Title IX does not reference or deal with transgender individuals. It protects all biological females from having to compete against biological males.
Gabbard noted the ideological foundation — including a rejection of biological differences between men and women — of those opposing her proposed legislation:
Now let’s be honest, there are some people who oppose my bill — the Protect Women’s Sports Act — upholding Title IX because they don’t like Title IX in the first place, and they don’t like Title IX because it is based on that recognition of the biological distinction between men and women.
But it is a scientifically established fact that there is such a thing as a man and a woman. It’s also common sense. So it is the height of hypocrisy for those who claim to be advocates for women’s rights to deny that there is even such a thing as a woman, biologically speaking, to deny the very biological distinction that makes women women and not men.
Gabbard heralded athletic endeavors as pursuits through which character is forged for broader success. She held that such opportunities for girls and women — including the securing of athletic scholarships must be protected from unfair competition via “transgender” persons to maximize the actualization of females through sport.
Leftist advocates criticizing Gabbard’s proposed legislation as “anti-LGBT” frame sexual dimorphism in humans as an arbitrary social construct.