Hearing focuses on trans athletes
Pa. House education panel hears testimony from opposing sides
HARRISBURG — One high school girl said her track teammates felt abandoned and hurt by the silence of coaches and school officials when a transgender athlete joined the team, while a female athlete from a different high school said “transgender girls are girls just like me.”
The two athletes testified Wednesday in Harrisburg before the House Education Committee. It is considering a bill intended to protect girls and women who take part in school and college sports from competing against athletes who were male at birth.
Others who testified Wednesday included a parent, medical experts and the founder of the Save Women’s Sports coalition.
After the hearing, Republican Committee Chairperson Curt Sonney of Erie County said quick action on the bill was unlikely, partly because the committee needed more medical information.
A Democrat on the committee, Rep. Maureen Madden of Monroe County, blasted the hearing as a waste of time.
“The Legislature has no business legislating this,” she said.
The bill’s prime sponsor, Republican Rep. Barb Gleim of Cumberland County, said after the hearing that officials at the Olympic level already are discussing issues involving transgender athletes.
A New Zealand weightlifter this week became the first openly transgender woman to compete in the Olympics. She failed to complete any of her first three lifts on Monday night, eliminating her from the competition.
Decisions at the international level, Gleim said, likely would spill down into collegiate sports and then into high school sports.
Nonetheless, Gleim said of Pennsylvania, “If my bill isn’t passed, the only winner is males.”
Opposing opinions
Lily Williams of Lancaster County — a four-year member of the Hempfield High School track and cross country teams — testified that on the third day of practice for the girls track this year “this boy showed up to practice every day and continued to run with us and nobody said anything about it.”
The athlete had been a member of the boys cross country team the previous year, Williams said.
Coaches and school officials said nothing, William testified, and girls later learned the athlete was transgender.
Williams said the girls on the track team felt abandoned, hurt and discriminated against, and at least some felt that no matter how hard they worked, they would not be as fast as the transgender athlete.
“Will you please take a stand to protect the girls that are under your care in the state of Pennsylvania?” Williams said.
Sophia Tellis, a soccer player who is entering 10th grade at Dallas High School in Luzerne County, told lawmakers the “state does not need to come in and disrupt.”
She said it made no difference to her whether other athletes on girls soccer teams are transgender.
“I would ask you to put yourself in their shoes,” she said. “The issue here is inclusion.”
She said, “Trans girls are girls just like me.”
An Allegheny County parent of a transgender athlete, Evangelino Nascimento, said having a transgender child made it clear to him that banning transgender athletes from girls sports would be wrong on many levels.
He said, “We came to understand that our daughter was no different than any other girl her age.”
Beth Stelzer, a Minnesota mother, amateur powerlifter and founder of the Save Women’s Sports coalition — which says it “seeks to preserve biology-based eligibility standards for participation in female sports” — said “extremists” are propagating the notion that male athletes can become female athletes.
Anyone who disagrees with them, Stelzer said, faces “cancel culture.”
“I get death threats for testifying,” she said. “You cannot change a male into a female.”
Expert testimony
Lawmakers had numerous questions for Dr. Gerald Montano and Dr. Gregory Brown, a pair of experts who discussed physical and medical aspects of transgender athletes.
Montano, medical director for the gender & sexual development program at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, said banning transgender athletes from girls sports is “an inappropriate conclusion to draw from the science.”
Brown, professor of exercise science at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, said males have more muscularity and bone density than females and hence have an “undeniable” advantage in sports. He added that “sex is a very important biological factor that is determined at conception.”
Republican Rep. Jesse Topper of Bedford County asked Montano — who has expertise in youth use of puberty blockers, testosterone and other therapies — whether there was a “tangible line in the sand” when a young athlete using such therapies went from one gender to the other.
Montano said individuals’ situations varied so much it would have to be judged on a “case-bycase basis.”
Montano said any banning of transgender athletes would harm their mental health. Specifically, he said, studies have shown that sports “has a beneficial effect on someone’s mental health.”
Brown recited a series of statistics based on many years of data that he said illustrated the inherent advantages males have in athletics. For instance, he said, boys reaching a certain age can lift 30%-60% more weight than comparably trained girls.
Asked whether diminishing the level of testosterone in a young athlete who was male at birth would make competition fair, Brown said, “It is not a fair playing field.”
Mississippi this year became the first state to enact a ban on transgender athletes on girls and women’s sports teams.
Lawmakers return to Harrisburg full time late next month. No action is likely on the bill before then.