South Carolina coach Dawn Staley expressed her support for transgender athletes on Saturday. People questioned Staley about her thoughts on transgender athletes participating in sports during her media availability before her team’s women’s national championship game against Iowa on Sunday.
“Damn, you got deep on me, didn’t you?” Staley stated. “I believe that women should play. If you identify as a woman and wish to participate in sports, you should be able to do so. That is my opinion. Would you like me to go deeper?
When questioned directly if transgender women should be allowed to participate in women’s sports, Staley was adamant and knew the reaction she would face.
“Yes, yes,” Staley answered. “So the barnstormer guys are going to flood my timeline and distract me on one of our game’s most important days, and I’m fine with that.” “I really am.”
Later in the day, we asked the same questions to Iowa coach Lisa Bluder, but she declined to respond.
“I understand it’s a topic that people are interested in,” Bluder went on to say. “But today, my thoughts are on the game tomorrow, my guys. We have a big game tomorrow, and I’d like to discuss it here. But I realize it’s an essential topic for another day.”
In recent years, the issue of allowing transgender athletes to compete in sports has gained national attention.
In April 2023, the United States House of Representatives enacted a bill that forbade individuals assigned male at birth from participating in girl’s and women’s teams at federally funded schools, thereby involving the federal government. Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) sponsored the measure, dubbed the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which passed on a 219-203 party-line vote.
It has not been addressed in the Democrat-controlled Senate, where it is unlikely to succeed. At the time, the White House stated that the current government “strongly opposes” the law, and that if it ever reaches President Joe Biden’s desk, he will veto it. “Politicians should not impose a one-size-fits-all requirement that forces coaches to remove children from their teams,” the White House said in a statement.
In 2010, the NCAA adopted its policy on transgender athletes, which underwent its most recent modification in 2022. It is now sport-specific and “aligns transgender student-athlete participation with the Olympic Movement,” in an effort to balance “fairness, inclusion, and safety for all who compete.”
