I am sad to see Sen. Mitt Romney joining Sen. Rand Paul in objecting to transgender youth participating in school sports. Romney said, “They shouldn’t be competing with people who are physiologically in an entirely different category, and I think boys should be competing with boys and girls should be competing with (girls) on the athletic field.”
My niece is 6′2″ and athletically gifted. I am 5′5″ and am blessed with double vision. We are “physiologically in an entirely different category.” My niece’s large public school volleyball team took a state championship. My tiny private school’s team did not.
Should students be subjected to humiliating physical exams to determine their fitness to participate in team sports?
Sixteen states already allow student trans athletes to compete according to their gender identification in current school records and daily-life activities. The world has not come to an end.
Just because a physician or midwife pronounces a gender at birth, based on a view of external genitalia, doesn’t mean that the baby will neatly conform to that designation.
There are many variations in sexual characteristics that include internal genitals, external genitals, gonads, chromosomes, gene expression, hormone levels, and brain structure.
In fact 1.7% of the population meets the definition of intersex, which is about as common as having red hair.
Sen. Romney please get your medical information from someone who doesn’t present himself as a board certified ophthalmologist despite his self-created “board” being out of business since 2011.
Christine B. Helfrich, Millcreek
