Unserious men obsessed with trans athletes.
You’re more likely to be killed by a meteorite than you are to encounter a random transfemale NCAA athlete. And you’re 23x more likely to be involved in a mass shooting. Yet there are no special committees about meteorites or mass shootings. Weird… (Photo by The Georgia Senate via WABE)
Tomorrow morning, Lt. Governor Burt Jones’ Senate Special Committee on the Protection of Women’s Sports—chaired by Greg Dolezal (R–27)—will hold their first hearing in an effort to prepare anti-LGTBQ legislation for the upcoming session (you can watch it here starting at 9:00am).
But why?
While it’s unclear how many high school athletes may be transgender, of the more than 500,000 NCAA athletes nationwide, 40 are trans and only two are transwomen. That’s less than 0.0004% (CNN).
Nor is there even a sufficient body of evidence to suggest transfemale athletes benefit from an athletic advantage. If anything, studies reveal that relevant sex-based differences are reduced by post-puberty hormone therapy (Harvard Crimson).
So, why spend our state’s time and money on an edge case issue that lacks informed consensus? And which almost certainly invites legal challenges and unnecessary costs?
The answer—of course—is virtue signaling at the expense of a vulnerable segment of our state population.
Members of our legislature are targeting trans residents for political gain, exploiting fears and misinformation as part of a broader culture war against inclusivity. I would further argue that, in an election cycle, this kind of cynical attack serves as a distraction from many legislators’ inaction on the issues most Georgians care about: wages, obtainable housing, inflation, and healthcare access.
If we really want to protect women in sport, we should focus instead on remedying Georgia’s worst-in-the-nation access to healthcare—especially reproductive care. And we should respect the autonomy of local schools and athletic associations to make decisions about transgender participation in sports, free from political influence.
Excluding transgender students addresses a non-existent problem. But until gender dysphoria is as commonly accepted among the legislators as erectile dysfunction, our elected officials are going to keep burning time and money to bully a handful of teens and young adults.
An embarrassment of representation.
Former collegiate swimmers Kaitlynn Wheeler, Riley Gaines, and Grace Countie, who competed in Georgia but aren’t from our state, prepare to testify in opposition to transgender athletes in women's sports in front of the state senate’s Special Committee on Protecting Women's Sports at the Capitol in Atlanta on Tuesday, August 27, 2024. (Photo by Arvin Temkar for the AJC)
Whether it’s in Roswell City Hall or under the Gold Dome, there’s an epidemic of negligent representation in Georgia government. And this Tuesday, Lt. Governor Burt Jones and Greg Dolezal’s (R-27) Special Committee on the Protection of Women’s Sports hearing certainly lived up to that low bar.
I’ll start by acknowledging, the issue of transgender athlete participation in gendered sports is a complex issue with strong opinions on both sides. Matters of biological sex and gender identity collide in sport in ways they don’t in most other matters of inclusion and equality. And with the relatively tiny number of people affected and the general lack of empirical evidence, it can be hard to see past anecdotes and uninformed bigotry.
But regardless of your position on the issue, Tuesday’s hearing showed an embarrassing failure of government.
Ostensibly a committee meeting concerned with protecting Georgia women athletes—from what menace that involves the state, it’s not clear—the hearing was instead a cynical episode of political theatre in which Georgia residents were denied their voice and in which our elected officials demonstrated a disinterest in listening.
According to an East Cobb couple who went down to the capital for the hearing, nearly a dozen Georgia residents—mostly parents but also ministers and activists—signed up to provide testimony but weren’t allowed to speak.
Meanwhile, a cohort of athletes and lobbyists from outside the state were given a platform to bully a single transfemale athlete (also not a Georgian, also not invited to speak) who competed at a Georgia Tech event. Burt Jones used the event as a photo opportunity for his future gubernatorial campaign. Even the opening prayer was partisan and transphobic.
Georgians are working hard to make ends meet. We need real solutions to real problems, not politicians stirring up divisions for their own political gain.
JD JORDAN FOR GEORGIA STATE SENATE DISTRICT 56
For anyone in East Cobb, Roswell, or Woodstock alarmed by the state’s escalating attacks on our bodies, our families, our doctors’ offices, our classrooms and libraries, even our polling places, I’m running for State Senate district 56 to fight for our freedoms and to deliver a better future for everyone in Georgia.
And unlike my opponent who’s spent 14 years rolling back our freedoms, failing to safeguard our kids, and gerrymandered his district to stay in office, I promise to bring everyone in the 56—regardless of ideology—the best possible constituent experience so you feel heard, valued, and supported. As we all deserve to be.
I’m running for the 56. Let’s make a better Georgia for all of us.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT
Jordan For Georgia, LLC
10800 Alpharetta Hwy Ste 208 #629
Roswell, GA 30076-1467
jdjordan@forthe56.com
706.804.0456
