The president of Franciscan University has urged that women’s sports be reserved for biological women in an op-ed this week in USA Today.
“Biology 101 tells us men’s bodies and women’s bodies are different,” writes Dave Pivonka in Thursday’s op-ed. “Because they are, Title IX legislation has elevated women’s sports in schools over the past 50 years, making it possible for more female athletes to compete against other female athletes.”
“Because their bodies are different, we have the NBA and WNBA, the PGA and LPGA, ATP and WTA,” Pivonka writes. “These divisions give women the opportunity to measure their hard work and success against other women on an even playing field.”
Given current conditions, however, some female athletes have to “compete against athletes who I believe have an unfair advantage: transgender women,” he declares, citing the recent example of Lia Thomas, a biological male who won an NCAA women’s swimming competition in Division I.
Pivonka acknowledges the pain and isolation faced by men and women who struggle with their sexual identity, but insists that reassignment surgery, hormones, and drugs are not the solution to this problem.
We “can’t tell them drugs or surgery will bring their body in line with what they experience and feel,” he argues. “We can’t say the human body doesn’t matter when it matters greatly.”
As a university president, “I am concerned for my female athletes,” Pivonka states. “They will work hard, be diligent in their training, and on race day lose to transgender athletes.”
“Tragically, it becomes another example of how the system is rigged against women because they were born women,” he concludes. “Our female athletes deserve better.”