HB1489: Males to take over women’s sports in Hawaii?

by Mary Smart

It was recently discovered that many Hawaii public high schools have never had girls locker rooms. Campbell HS, the state's largest--hasn't had a girls locker room since its opening in 1962.

But while a Title IX lawsuit is threatened after 56 years of inaction, Hawaii Legislators are already moving HB 1489 to give males pretending to be female the right to use the non-existent female athletic facilities.

HB1489 is aimed directly at children. The bill "Prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, including gender identity or expression, or sexual orientation, in any state educational program or activity, or in any educational program or activity that receives state financial assistance."

The Senate Committee on the Judiciary will hold a public decision making session on HB 1489, twice amended as HD 1 SD 1, April 3, 2018 at 9:15 am in Conference Room 016.  If passed, the bill will essentially strip women athletes of all the progress that has been made in equalizing the playing field. HB 1489 would make sports much more dangerous and unfair for actual biological females by allowing biological males, with pseudo-female "gender identity or expression", to play on women’s sports teams.

Pitting biological males against biological females is not new. In 1973 there was the “battle of the sexes”, a tennis tournament between Billy Jean King, who was in her prime at 29 years old and Bobby Riggs at 55 years old. Under these lop-sided conditions the female won. However, HB 1489 as amended is not talking about a single exhibition match pitting an over-the-hill male against a top female athlete. Males are already pushing their way into women's sports and women have difficulty competing. Rene Richards, aka Richard Raskind, was already older when playing in women’s tennis tournaments and had a strength advantage over biological women of the same age.

Science shows that men (XY genes) and women (XX genes) are biologically different.  One study by the Weizmann Institute's Molecular Genetics Department found that there are 6,500 differences in the genes of men and women. A study by the American Physiological Society found there are 3000 genes that that are differentially expressed in male and female skeletal muscle. Biological men tend to have 40% muscle mass to women’s 30%. Physiological differences give biological men advantage in sports that use strength and speed. Psychology Today reports that men are larger, stronger, with denser, stronger bones, tendons and ligaments. In addition, men have a greater cardiovascular reserve, larger hearts, greater lung volume per body mass, and a higher circulating clotting factor which results in faster healing of wounds. According to Runner World, a 2015 edition, “At every distance up to the marathon, the gap between men’s and women’s world record times is nine to 10 percent…” It should be no surprise that biological males are winning titles in the women’s division in weightlifting (Laurel Hubbard), volleyball (Tiffany Abreu), and bicycling (Jillian Bearden).

Many people play sports to stay healthy, yet encouraging a biological male to take puberty blockers that reduce natural testosterone levels (or increase estrogen) is especially unhealthy. We have no idea what the long term implications of taking these substances will be but we are quickly changing policies that will likely increase the number of adolescence who accept the unknown risk. We are experimenting on children and that is not a good thing. Columbia University Health Sciences reported in 2003 that “the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) added estrogen to its list of known cancer-causing agents.”

Sadly, our weak-kneed, 'politically correct' legislators are passing this bill without a whimper. Most people don’t even know it is being considered. Let’s hope and pray that the Senate Judiciary will wake up and see the absolute discrimination this bill imposes on biological females. If HB 1489 HD 1 SD 1 passes, and biological males begin to dominate girls sports starting in kindergarten, will anyone care about women’s sports?

HB1489: Text, Status