As the LGBT madness has risen to the category of juggernaut, some of its staunch backers have begun to realize that their movement creates severe consequences. Most want to address only the potential impact now affecting women’s sports.
On April 27, an individual using the name Mary Gregory competed in a female-only powerlifting tournament held in Virginia. The competition was open only to females. By the time the event ended, Mary Gregory had not only triumphed in several categories of the grueling sport, she had broken four powerlifting world records in a single day.
Great accomplishment? Some will salute the achievement of this unique weightlifter. But others discovered that, until recently, Mary Gregory was well known and even self-identified as a man. Now claiming to be a woman, the new world record holder had little problem defeating all the women whose ability at lifting weights fell short. The new champion weightlifter commented, “As a transgender lifter I was unsure what to expect going into this meet. But everyone made me welcome and treated me as just another female lifter. Thank you.”
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Unfair you say? Of course it is — but it’s now within the rules for men to claim to be women and to score victories in women’s sporting events. Former tennis champion Martina Navratilova, long an outspoken advocate of LGBT causes, is now worried. Even before Mary Gregory’s record-setting victories, Navratilova stated her fears about what is likely to occur in the world of tennis. She stated:
A man can decide to be a female, take hormones if required by whatever sporting organization is concerned, win everything in sight, perhaps earn a small fortune, and then reverse his decision to be female. I am happy to address a transgender woman in whatever form she prefers, but I would not be happy to compete against her. It would not be fair.
Sorry about your concern, Martina. But it’s only a matter of time before what you think is unfair becomes the norm unless common sense and real fairness can prevail.
British swimmer Sharron Davies won a silver medal in the 1980 Olympics. No longer competing, she sees the same problem in her sport. After speaking out against men masquerading as women in sports, she has been accused of hate speech. According to some, pointing out that an individual is either male or female is now forbidden. Davies says, “A woman with a female biology cannot compete [under the emerging new rules]. It’s a pointlessly unfair playing field.”
The madness has now come up for adjudication by the U.S. federal government. A measure entitled “The Equality Act” (H.R. 5 in the House and S. 788 in the Senate) has gained 240 co-sponsors in the House and 46 co-sponsors in the Senate. It seeks to amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to make “sexual orientation and gender identity” matters protected by federal anti-discrimination law. If fully enacted, it would require schools to include biological males in formerly all-female sporting events. While some females might still triumph in some sports, everyone realizes that males who claim to be females will generally win — for themselves or their team.
Yes, this is madness. But it isn’t confined to sports alone. The Equality Act will erase distinctions in gender for housing, employment, public accommodations, and more. There will be no separate restrooms, showers, changing areas, etc. Before this measure has even been enacted, the thinking behind it has already impacted churches, mosques, synagogues, hospitals, adoption agencies, foster care facilities, and more.
As usual, well-known American corporations are backing this deviation from reality. Alex Newman has reported that over 150 business behemoths, including Amazon, Google, Twitter, Facebook, Microsoft, and General Electric, are helping to fund punishing anyone for speaking out against sodomy, same-sex “marriage,” and the growing requirement for all to use new pronouns and “less-offensive” terms for what has always been unimaginably reprehensible.
If not stopped, the LGBT juggernaut will affect not only the athletic world, it will also seriously impact religion, the use of the Bible, the dictionary, and a whole lot more. The First Amendment’s guarantees of freedom of speech, press, assembly, and more were written to bar such a turn toward madness. But even the U.S. Constitution doesn’t always stop those who are undermining our national culture and destroying the basic freedom to condemn what is condemnable and protect the plan regarding real men and real women launched by the Maker of all of us.
Members of Congress need to hear from constituents about this latest plan to enshrine madness.
John F. McManus is president emeritus of The John Birch Society.
