Porch Talks with Joel Schmieg

The NCAA has recently pulled seven championships out of North Carolina due to the HB2 bill which “makes it unlawful to use a restroom different from the gender on one’s birth certificate, regardless of gender identity,” according to ncaa.org

There are many things wrong with this decision, and the NCAA is not the only group making decisions like this one, but they are the ones who are going to deal with these decisions sooner rather than later.

What happens when a man wants to play a women’s NCAA sport? Sure, he identifies as a woman, but he is still as strong and athletic as a man.

Yes, I understand that not all men are more athletic than all women. But men are different from women physically. Nobody can deny that. If it weren’t true, why are men not allowed to play with women already?

So with that established, a man who identifies as a woman is a man in every sense of the word that matters when it comes to athletics.

Bruce Jenner was one of the greatest Olympic athletes of all time. What if he was an athlete today and wanted to compete with the women? Would that be fair?

Of course not.

So apply that to today. What if a man wants to play women’s basketball? A man who is probably 4-5 inches taller than every other woman on the court. Does he really just have to identify as a woman?

If he has to do anything more than that, then I would argue that the NCAA is not being inclusive, according to its own definition of the word.

“The NCAA Constitution clearly states our values of inclusion and gender equity, along with the membership’s expectation that we as the Board of Governors protect those values for all,”

Susquehanna University President Jay Lemons, vice chair of the Board of Governors and chair of the ad hoc committee on diversity and inclusion said.

Mark Emmert, NCAA president, better be ready for the storm he has created. Very soon, there will be numerous instances of men who identify as women trying to play women’s basketball, volleyball, soccer, etc.

I hope he is prepared to handle that in a way consistent with the standard he has set.

Either way, he will be in trouble. If he sticks to “inclusivity,” things will go south quickly in women’s sports with biological men competing among women. If he doesn’t allow it, he will be a hypocritical bigot.

After all, isn’t that what bigot means? Somebody who disagrees with someone? Forgive me, that’s just the definition society has created.

Pick your poison Mark. Either way it’s not going down smoothly.

Schmieg is the sports editor