WEST VIEW, Pennsylvania — Female bodies are not as strong, fast, or capable as male bodies.
That is not my opinion; it is a fact.
Dr. Neel Burton wrote in Psychology Today just that.
“Men are physically stronger than women, who have, on average, less total muscle mass, both in absolute terms and relative to total body mass,” he said. “The greater muscle mass of men is the result of testosterone-induced muscular hypertrophy. Men also have denser, stronger bones, tendons, and ligaments.”
Pennsylvania Democratic state Sen. Lindsey Williams, who has a Bachelor of Arts in political science from Dickinson College and a Juris Doctor from Duquesne University School of Law, believes she has superior expertise on this issue. This was made clear by her controversial testimony at the state capitol Wednesday, where she spoke against a bill that would ban transgender athletes from girls’ sports.
Williams, who was speaking ahead of the committee vote on the Save Women’s Sports Act in the Pennsylvania upper chamber, said female athletes are physically comparable to male athletes and don’t face biological disadvantages.
“I want all girls to know that there are elected officials like me who believe female bodies are just as strong and fast and capable as male bodies,” Williams said.
This was not a girl power moment, which appears to have been her intent in that statement. It was instead a lawmaker who is captured by an unrealistic ideology that ignores biological facts.
Williams claimed that saying women can’t compete with men is a fantasy created for political optics. “For what reason, other than political gain, are we spending time and taxpayer dollars on a completely made-up issue?” Williams said.
Williams district snakes around the city of Pittsburgh in the middle-class and upper-middle-class townships and boroughs I grew up in. Today, I spoke with several suburban voters who supported her run. They said they spend their weekends at their daughter’s soccer games, swim meets, and volleyball matches. They found her opinion not just confounding, but also insulting.
They worry about their daughters getting hurt and losing out to biological male athletes in girls’ sports, which could affect college scholarships. They were also concerned about their daughters having to share locker facilities with biological men.
Their concerns about biological men in women’s sports are not an outlier. A recent New York Times-Ipsos survey showed the majority of people do not want transgender-identifying men in women’s sports. Of those who were surveyed, 79% said athletes who were male at birth but who currently identify as female “should not” compete in women’s sports.
Save Women’s Sports Act co-sponsor state Sen. Kristin Philllips-Hill, a Republican, said to the committee, “Women before us successfully fought for equality with educational and athletic opportunity. In Title IX, it was a promise to our daughters and granddaughters. And SB9 keeps that promise.”
The Save Women’s Sports Act passed out of committee. All Republicans voted yes to protect girls. All of the Democrats voted no.
MAKING WOMEN’S SPORTS FAIR AGAIN
Colin Dunlap, a KDKA radio talk show host, noted on X that Williams is his state senator and that in her comments, she embarrassed herself on the topic of transgendered athletes:
“She is sticking to some nonsensical fantasy that the body of a girl is the same as one of a boy. That isn’t a reality.”