The Flathead Beacon grants regular space to the former failed mayor of Kalispell, Tammi Fisher. In her recent column, Ms. Fisher claims that Rep. John Fuller’s Save Women’s Sports Act (HB 112) is an unwarranted intrusion into an already regulated activity and an unnecessary expansion of government in the name of “feel good” legislation. Ms. Fisher is being disingenuous in her claim that protecting women from the physiologically advantaged males attempting to compete in formerly exclusively female sports is a violation of Republican principles. The Republican Party has always stood for protecting the equal rights of Americans. The Republican Party is the party that ended slavery in America and is currently the party that is defending the rights of the vulnerable in America; the elderly, the unborn and, yes, women who want to compete and be free from male intrusion into their bathrooms, locker rooms and on the athletic fields. The purpose of government is to protect the equal rights of all, and when there is a violation of those rights, it is not only proper, but right for it to act.
Ms. Fisher claims that the NCAA is already abiding with anti-discrimination laws. The NCAA mandates that transgender males that wish to compete in female sports take at least one year of hormones to reduce their testosterone levels. This is an implicit recognition that males are physiologically advantaged over females requiring that transitioning males take drugs to reduce that advantage. The NCAA is requiring that drugs be ingested before eligibility! But women wishing to transition to males are not allowed to take testosterone to equalize their disadvantage. What is non-discriminatory about that? As we approach the 50th anniversary of Title IX, it is ironic that Ms. Fisher is accepting of the idea that in the name of her political agenda that one of the most socially beneficial laws in American history be destroyed. We have separate women’s sports precisely because we wish to protect equal access to athletic competition and all the benefits athletic participation entails.
The “Save Women’s Sports Act” is necessary to resist those who would dismantle the equality of opportunity that women have enjoyed for almost 50 years. Those who would claim that is a violation of Republican principles are not only ignorant of history, but the enemy of women athletes everywhere.
Rep. John Fuller
R-Kalispell