The “cancel culture” is coming to Idaho after legislators there moved to save women’s sports.
The NCAA is considering moving the 2021 men’s basketball tournament games scheduled to be played in Idaho. The reason being given is that the state recently passed a bill protecting women’s sports from being weakened or destroyed by trans-identified males competing in those sports. The 2021 NCAA Tournament is slated to feature first- and second-round games scheduled to be played at the Taco Bell Center in Boise between March 18 and 20.
According to “The Idaho Press,” the games may not occur because of objections raised to House Bill 500, legislation signed into state law in late March by Gov. Brad Little The bill, which is set to go into effect on July 1, prohibits biological males who identify as transgender from participating in female athletics at the high school and university levels.
READ: Idaho bans biological males from competing in women’s sports
LGBT advocacy groups, more than 400 student-athletes and several professional and Olympic athletes have written three separate letters to the NCAA asking them to scrap sponsored events while the bill is on the books.
“Idaho’s law blatantly targets an already-marginalized community in athletics and decreases their participation in sports,” a letter from a group of advocates reads. Among other groups, the letter was signed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Women’s Law Center.
The letter from professional athletes was signed by tennis legend Billie Jean King, U.S. Olympic soccer star Megan Rapinoe, Olympic basketball player Sue Bird and others. In response to the new law, the ACLU filed a lawsuit alleging that it was invasive and discriminates against trans-identified people.
But supporters of the law argue that it is necessary to protect fairness, given the numerous physiological advantages that male puberty confers on their bodies. Proponents of the law contend that it is unfair to allow biological males, regardless of hormone use or how they identify, to compete against females.
Along with the bill barring trans-identifying males from participating in women’s sports, Idaho Gov. Little also signed into law a separate bill requiring vital statistics to be maintained based on biological sex, banning the alteration of sex markers on public records such as birth certificates.
–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice