NCAA President Charlie Baker apparently thinks that female athletes are more of a burden to college sports than they are equal members who deserve respect from the top governing body.
Baker faced a Senate hearing where he had hoped to talk about restrictions on gambling on college athletes, though anyone could have predicted that the conversation would turn to the NCAA allowing men in women’s sports and facilities. Sure enough, Republicans broached the topic with Baker repeatedly, with Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) asking why the NCAA allows men in women’s locker rooms. “Your guidelines say that ‘transgender student-athletes should be able to use the locker room, shower, and toilet facilities in accordance with their gender identity,’” Hawley said.
“And that everybody else should have an opportunity to use other facilities if they wish to do so,” Baker responded. When pressed by Hawley about the fact that Baker is saying women should have to change somewhere other than the women’s locker room if they are comfortable changing next to men, Baker said, “We told the local folks who’ve hosted our tournaments they need to create accommodations for the people who are playing.”
The logical reading of Baker’s comments is that men who are “transgender women” have a right to use women’s locker rooms, according to NCAA rules, and that any woman who is uncomfortable changing next to a man must use “other facilities.” The NCAA president thinks a true women’s locker room, where only women are allowed, is some kind of special “accommodation” that must be made so that men can use women’s locker rooms whenever they want.
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How is the NCAA supposed to be trusted with women’s sports when the NCAA president wants to push female athletes into some supply closet to change to accommodate a handful of men who claim they are magically women? Charlie Baker wants to force female athletes to change next to and compete against men, to the point that women become second-class citizens in their own sports and spaces. Baker’s comments suggest he views women’s sports as more of a burden that the NCAA must “accommodate” rather than a legitimate part of the college sports landscape.
Baker’s total unwillingness to stand for female athletes and instead brush them off as an obstacle that the NCAA must navigate is an indictment of his “leadership.” Female college athletes deserve better than being treated as nuisances in their own sports by the man who is supposed to be in charge of protecting them.