{"id":4233,"date":"2023-07-14T05:04:47","date_gmt":"2023-07-14T05:04:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=4233"},"modified":"2023-07-14T09:58:33","modified_gmt":"2023-07-14T09:58:33","slug":"wisconsin-lawmakers-introduce-save-womens-sports-act-dems-cry-discrimination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=4233","title":{"rendered":"Wisconsin Lawmakers Introduce Save Women\u2019s Sports Act,\u2019 Dems Cry Discrimination"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/the-upper-midwest\/wisconsin-lawmakers-introduce-save-womens-sports-act-dems-cry-discrimination\/mkittle\/2023\/07\/14\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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Two Badger State Republican lawmakers have introduced legislation that would keep biological males who identify as female from competing in K-12 and collegiate sports in Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

The Wisconsin Legislative Transgender Parent and Non-Binary Advocacy Caucus is crying foul, asserting the legislation is discriminatory and detrimental to the youth trans community.<\/p>\n

State Senator Dan Knodl (R-Germantown) and State Representative Barbara Dittrich (R-Oconomowoc) this week introduced \u00a0the Save Women\u2019s Sports Act \u201cto protect the fairness and safety of women\u2019s athletics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis legislation will ensure that female athletes continue to have equal access to athletic opportunities and safe competition under the spirit of Title IX,\u201d Knodl said in a statement. \u201cAs the father of two daughters and former student athletes, I am committed to upholding a level playing field where female athletes can thrive, compete, and excel.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bills, destined for veto by Wisconsin\u2019s far left Governor Tony Evers, aim to preserve female and male athletics categories in Wisconsin\u2019s primary, secondary and collegiate schools \u2014 open to all individuals based on their biological sex listed on their birth certificate. The bills also create an optional co-ed category open to all athletes.<\/p>\n

LGBTQ advocates are railing against what they say is discriminatory legislation.<\/p>\n

State Representative Melissa Ratcliff (D-Cottage Grove), part of the Wisconsin Legislative Transgender Parent and Non-Binary Advocacy Caucus, declared the bills attack transgender and non-binary youth, that they are \u201chateful, discriminatory, and harmful to some of our most vulnerable and historically marginalized young people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGovernor Evers has been clear that he will veto bills that endanger our trans and non-binary young people so we must assume that introducing these bills is meant to fan the flames of the culture wars the far right continues to perpetuate,\u201d Ratcliff said in a statement. \u201cIn contrast, our Caucus\u2019 message to trans and non-binary youth is hopeful, positive, and supportive: we see you, we hear you, we value you, and we will never stop fighting for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alexandra Schweitzer, president of the No Left Turn in Education <\/a>(NLTE) chapter in Wisconsin, a conservative group advocating for parental rights in public schools, said she agrees that there is discrimination in girls\u2019 and women\u2019s athletics, but it\u2019s coming from the so-called tolerant LGBTQ community.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter more than 100 years of fighting for women\u2019s rights, fighting for equality \u2026 they are trying to take that away from us,\u201d Schweitzer said. \u201cThey are stripping us of our rights to stand in a locker room without having to shield our body from a [biological] man. They are stripping us of our rights to compete and win against our own sex.\u201d<\/p>\n

At least 22 states<\/a> have passed and signed laws prohibiting transgender students from participating in sports contrary to their biological sex at birth. Some 500 bills checking the LGBTQ+ political agenda have been introduced in Legislatures across the country, according to<\/a> the leftist American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).<\/p>\n

A Marquette University Law School poll published in June found 71 percent of Wisconsinites favor laws requiring transgender athletes to compete on teams matching their biological sex as assigned at birth.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s on track with a recent Gallup poll showing 69 percent of 1,000 U.S. adults believe transgender athletes should only be allowed to compete on sports teams matching their biological sex as assigned at birth.<\/p>\n

The controversial issue has only heated up following the record-breaking success of transgender female student-athletes competing in women\u2019s sporting events.<\/p>\n

Former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines<\/a> has been a vocal critic of biologically born males competing in female sports as transgender women.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy story is not unique. It\u2019s happening every sport, every division, every level in every state, all across the world, really, and every country. So to deny that is entirely disingenuous. It blows my mind,\u201d Gaines recently said<\/a> in response to what she described as soccer star Megan Rapinoe\u2019s \u201cclassic virtue signaling\u201d on the issue of transgender athletes. \u201cI could list 100 examples seriously off the top of my head and me being in the position that I\u2019m in using my platform for this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The World Athletics Council, the governing body for international track and field, recently released a policy that prohibits transgender women athletes from elite competitions for women. As National Public Radio<\/em> reported<\/a>, the council\u2019s policy largely targets athletes who transitioned from male to female after going through puberty as a male.<\/p>\n

The council ultimately decided to prioritize \u201cfairness and the integrity\u201d of the female competition over inclusion.<\/p>\n

Schweitzer said that shouldn\u2019t be a controversial position to take.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to continue to support our legislators,\u201d she said. \u201cThese are such important bills for young women trying to hold on to equal rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u2013 \u2013<\/p>\n

M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/p>\n

The post Wisconsin Lawmakers Introduce Save Women\u2019s Sports Act,\u2019 Dems Cry Discrimination<\/a> appeared first on The Wisconsin Daily Star<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/wisconsindailystar.com\/the-upper-midwest\/wisconsin-lawmakers-introduce-save-womens-sports-act-dems-cry-discrimination\/mkittle\/2023\/07\/14\/ Two Badger State Republican lawmakers have introduced legislation that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":3495,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wi-daily-star"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4233"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4234,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4233\/revisions\/4234"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}