Peter Hasson on October 8, 2019
Most Americans believe that biologically male athletes who identify as transgender women have competitive advantages over female athletes, according to newly released polling data.
A Morning Consult survey released Tuesday shows that majorities of self-identified Republicans, Democrats and independents all say that male athletes who identify as transgender women “have a competitive advantage” over female athletes.
Overall, 57% of American adults said that the biologically male athletes have an advantage, while just 20% disagreed. Another 23% gave no opinion. The majority view is backed up by scientific research, but clashes with elected Democrats’ positioning on the issue.
House Democrats unanimously supported the Equality Act, which, if signed into law, would force schools to include male athletes who identify as transgender girls on female sports teams. Multiple House Democrats denied on the record that the biologically male athletes would have unfair advantages.
Every Democratic frontrunner for president has come out in support of the Equality Act.
Morning Consult carried out the survey in July but hadn’t released the results before Tuesday. The polling firm posed the question to 1114 adults, and noted that the results had a margin of error of three percent.
Former U.S. Olympic athlete Rebecca Dussault warned in an interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation published last month that allowing biologically male athletes to compete in female athletics will be detrimental for girls’ and women’s sports.
“Once a male body has gone through puberty, they have received the benefits. So the skeletal form, lung capacity, muscle density, the greater length of levers in their body, their muscle-to-weight ratio, their capacity to deal with dehydration much better, narrower hips, I mean you name it — they are physiologically designed differently than women,” Dussault told the DCNF.
Male athletes who identify as transgender have piled up victories and allowed to compete in female sports.
Franklin Pierce University runner Cece Telfer, a biological male who identifies as transgender, won an NCAA women’s track championship in May, after previously competing on the university’s men’s team. Telfer told ESPN in June that the female athletes actually have the advantage.
A biologically male weightlifter won two gold medals for New Zealand at the 2019 Pacific Games in July. Biologically male cyclist Rachel McKinnon won a women’s world championship in October 2018.
Two male runners have dominated high school girls’ track in Connecticut, which one female competitor described as “demoralizing.”
