There are two sexes; men and women, and they are different. Seems odd that we need to state that. But, today, the woke Left would have you believe you can’t state this simple biological fact without being controversial - at risk of being canceled. In Joe Biden’s America you can be whatever gender you want to be or none at all. You can choose whatever pronoun you want to use from a list of over 100 of them. When it comes to sports, you can compete as whatever gender you would like. Even if it advantages you unfairly and is seriously damaging to women.
Female athletes and women’s sports are being completely undermined and disregarded in favor of an extremely contradictory brand of inclusion. Why? Because in the Left’s hierarchy of marginalized groups to champion, transgender individuals fall above women. One man’s choice to become a woman outweighs every woman’s right to a fair and level playing field.
As former University of Kentucky swimmer and Women’s Sports advocate Riley Gaines, a woman who was forced to compete against and share a locker room with Lia Thomas, a biological man, recently pointed out, Tennis legends Venus and Serena Williams both lost to a man who ranked 203rd over a decade ago. Why? Because men and women are different. In the America in which I grew up, that truth wasn’t controversial. It was widely accepted common sense.
Empowering delusion is hurtful to this generation of young women and the generations that will follow. The Left has moved far past empowering this delusion – they are trying to indoctrinate our children and military with it. We should be able to trust that the men and women who selflessly serve in our armed forces are not forced to undergo pronoun training while they could be undergoing life-saving combat training. We should be able to send our kids to school and trust that they are learning reading and math, not Liberal propaganda. We should at the very least know that they are not being exposed to school-sanctioned pornographic material.
Last month, the Biden administration threatened to strip school lunch funds from schools that will not allow biological boys to compete in girls’ sports. They quite literally want to hold school lunches for children in need hostage in exchange for compliance with their radical agenda. What a radical punishment!
Without being able to agree on something as simple as men should not be playing womens’ sports, the Left has created a divisive culture with irreparable consequences. If America continues on this trajectory, an extinction of competitive women’s sports is inevitable. I don’t want that for my daughters, or yours. Girls and women deserve a fair and competitive environment, where they can strive to reach the top of their field. They deserve to go into the women’s locker room without concern that a biological man will be changing in their locker room.
Just weeks ago, during her testimony in a Senate hearing on Biden’s proposed Title IX changes, Riley Gaines responded to Senator Durbin, who alleged that dividing sports down the lines of biological sex sends a hurtful message to transgender individuals: “My comeback to that is what message does it send to women, to young girls who are denied these opportunities? So easily their rights to privacy and safety thrown out the window to protect a small population, to protect one group as long as they’re happy,” Gaines said. “What about us? That is the overall consensus of how we all felt inside that locker room (with Lia Thomas).”
She said that some of her teammates even undressed in the Janitor’s closet to avoid being exposed to male genitalia or undressing in front of Thomas. It’s ludicrous.
But that’s the America that Joe Biden and the woke Left want. An America where biological men can compete against women. An America where women can’t change in their locker room because a biological man’s “rights” have been put over theirs.
But for me, I want more for my daughters and yours. I refuse to stand idly by as the Left attempts to undermine young women across the country because it is politically convenient. I am running for the United States Senate because we need more leaders who aren’t shy about speaking out for what’s right and standing up for pure common sense.
Congressman Banks currently serves Indiana’s Third Congressional District in the United States House of Representatives. He is running to replace Senator Mike Braun (R-IN), who is not seeking re-election. Born and raised in Indiana, Jim and his wife Amanda are the proud parents to three young daughters and they are honored to serve Northeast Indiana in Washington.