GOP lawmakers don't care about women's sports or the athletes who play them

Kids are being slaughtered in their classrooms, on their campuses and at birthday parties. They’re being shot on their way home from cheerleading practice and when their basketball happens to roll into the wrong yard.

Fifty-plus years after Title IX was enacted, female athletes are still being short-changed in pay, funding and opportunities. The number of sports where girls and young women have been abused – sexually, physically and emotionally – is dizzying.

But sure, instead of trying to do something about these actual threats to girls and women in sports, let’s expend time and energy attacking transgender kids.

The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act that was passed Thursday will do no such thing – and not because it’s dead on arrival in the Senate and President Joe Biden has already said he’d veto it if it wasn’t.

Contrary to the misinformation and hate Republican lawmakers all over the country are spewing, women’s sports, and the athletes who play them, are not under threat or at risk for anything because a very small number of transgender kids want to play with their friends.

Transgender athletes are not overrunning women’s sports, at any age or any level. They’re not depriving cisgender women of roster spots or scholarships or any of the other hysteria the GOP would have you believe.

SPORTS NEWSLETTER: Sign up to get the latest news and features sent to your inbox

The NCAA and Olympics have had protocols for the participation of transgender athletes for more than a decade, and the number of girls and women who’ve availed themselves of the opportunity is miniscule. When Utah Gov. Spencer Cox vetoed one of these bills to "protect" women’s sports last year, which the legislature later overrode, he noted that out of the 75,000 kids playing high school sports in the state, only four were transgender and just one was playing a girl’s sport. More than a half-million athletes compete in college sports across all levels each year, yet there have been fewer than three dozen openly transgender athletes, according to Outsports.

The number of transgender girls and women who have won titles or claimed spots on a podium is even smaller.

While the GOP likes to express outrage over the Ivy League records swimmer Lia Thomas broke and the national title she won, they conveniently fail to mention that she got smoked in her other races at last year’s NCAA championships. Or that her winning time in the 500-yard freestyle at the national championships was more than nine seconds off Katie Ledecky’s NCAA record and three seconds slower than the pool record.

During debate in the House earlier this week, Rep. Erin Houchin, R-Ind., was indignant that a transgender girl in Connecticut had won a state title in track and, in doing so, "took it away from a biological female." Of course, Houchin left out the fact the transgender girl, whose participation was the subject of a lawsuit, was beaten twice for state titles by one of the girls who filed the lawsuit.

"Republicans are obsessed with attacking and bullying transgender people. It’s cruel, frankly it’s creepy, and it’s a really rotten thing to do," U.S. Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said earlier this week. "I’m sick and tired of the other side picking on vulnerable populations. Enough already.

"Gun violence is the leading cause of death for children and teens," McGovern added. "And Republicans are worried about deciding who can be on the track team? Give me a break."

The newfound concern for women's sports by the GOP is curious. Or, rather, convenient.

If Republicans actually cared about women’s sports and the people who play them, they’d be cracking down on all the colleges and universities that consistently – and willfully – violate Title IX by devoting less resources to their women’s teams, offering fewer playing opportunities and stiffing women athletes on scholarship money.

They’d be creating a nationwide registry of coaches and uniform licensing standards to help weed out the abusive coaches who prey on girls and young women. They’d have backed women athletes in their fights for equal pay and equitable working conditions.

But Republicans don’t really care about women’s sports. They care about scoring points with their base, and demonizing the trans community has become a convenient way to do that.

"Every single child should have access to the lifesaving power of sports," 40 Olympic, Paralympic and professional athletes, including Megan Rapinoe, Sue Bird, Becky Sauerbrunn and Jessica Mendoza, said in a letter opposing the House bill.

"Denying children access to a place where they can gain significant mental and physical health benefits and learn lifelong lessons that come from being part of a team and working hard towards your goals does not protect women in sports," the athletes wrote.

That such a mean-spirited bill will go nowhere is little consolation. The GOP is hellbent on marginalizing the trans community out of existence, and a setback at the federal level won’t change that.

Meanwhile, the problems in women's sports that really do need to be addressed won't be. Women athletes will continue to have to fight, on their own, for equality, equity and visibility.

Republicans are a lot of things these days. Genuinely concerned about women is not one of them.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on Twitter @nrarmour. 

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Approving transgender athlete ban bill doesn't protect women's sports