Letter to the editor: Preserve women's sports

“Follow the science.” Isn’t that what we constantly hear when it comes to mandates and policies concerning covid-19? Yet when it comes to transgender athletes participating in women’s sports, there is often silence on science. So let’s follow that science and common sense.

There are too many biological differences — physical and cognitive — between males and females to list here. Drugs used to suppress hormones or create others do not alter the biological sex of an individual and do not eliminate the differences and advantages of being a biological male competing against biological females.

We can have empathy for transgender athletes but should remain focused on facts, not emotions and rhetoric. Factually, we are talking about individuals who are biologically male who want to be female, with or without the use of drugs. If we continue to allow these males to compete in women’s sports at the high school or collegiate level, we will erase 50 years of progress under Title IX.

It’s time for Pennsylvania legislators to enact policies based on science and common sense, which will ban biological males from women’s sports. Please write your local representatives and encourage them to preserve women’s sports for biological women only.

Nancy Pleskovitch

Ligonier