Transgender athletes should be allowed to compete in women’s sports, South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley said before her team’s NCAA Tournament championship game.
Staley made the comments during a press conference on Saturday when OutKick reporter Dan Zaksheske asked her if she thought “biological males” should be “included” in women’s sports.
“I’m of the opinion that if you’re a woman, you should play,” Staley said. “If you consider yourself a woman and you want to play sports, or vice versa, you should be able to play. It’s my opinion. »
Staley was speaking to reporters before South Carolina’s championship game against Iowa on Sunday.
Iowa coach Lisa Bluder declined to answer the same question later.
“I understand that this is a topic that interests people, but today I focus on tomorrow’s game, on my players,” Bluder said. “It’s an important game we have tomorrow and that’s what I want to be here to talk about, but I know that’s an important question for another time.”
The topic of transgender athletes in sports has become a hot topic in recent years, despite the fact that starting in 2023, only 34 trans the athletes had openly participated in college sports, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio. Includes it in infinitesimal quantity more than 500,000 participants in NCAA athletics.
Opponents argue that transgender athletes who were assigned male at birth have an advantage over cisgender women. Last month, college swimmers and volleyball players sued the NCAAaccusing him of violating their Title IX rights by allowing transgender woman Lia Thomas to compete in the 2022 national swimming championships. Thomas was the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA swimming championship.
At least 20 states approved a version of a blanket ban on trans athletes playing on K-12 and collegiate sports teams. A Biden administration proposal would ban such outright bans.
South Carolina’s General Assembly, controlled by Republicans last year Approved laws prohibit teaching about gender identity and sexuality kindergarten through fourth grade, as well as banning transgender girls from playing on girls’ sports teams in middle and high school through college. In 2022, Iowa approved its own similar law.
Staley signaled she was prepared for any potential blowback caused by her comments.
“So now a storm of people is going to flood my calendar and distract me on one of the biggest days in our game,” she said, “and I’m OK with that. I really am. “
