
Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) claimed that “entire men’s teams” in the U.S. are transitioning in order to win at women’s sports, something that is not happening. Fewer than 10 trans women are currently playing at the college level in the entire country.
Tuberville appeared on Fox News on Sunday when he was asked about a bill to ban trans youth from participating in school sports that failed to pass in the Senate last month.
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“Well, it’s the priority of the Democrats, the letter salad of LGBTQ groups, you can’t let one of them down,” Tuberville said. “The Democrats know that transgender boys [sic] and women’s sports is wrong, but they can’t abandon them because the rest of their group would probably say, if you’re not going to stand with us, we’re out of here for you, Democrats.”
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Tuberville is incorrect in stating that Democrats want “transgender boys” to compete in women’s sports. The mainstream Democratic position on the issue is that transgender girls should be able to participate in school sports like every other student and that denying them such an opportunity is a violation of Title IX because it’s denying them equal educational opportunities on the basis of their sex.
But Tuberville didn’t stop there; he claimed with no evidence that there are now entire teams of men in sports who are transitioning just so that they can play in women’s sports.
“We have entire men’s teams across this country now that are turning trans,” he claimed. “Women’s teams, they’re turning trans.”
“And that’s going to be a, uh, a situation where it’s going to pick up speed because these woke globalists are pushing these kids to say, if you can’t compete in men’s sports, let’s just transition and say, you’re a woman and, and, uh, participate in women’s sports. It is dead wrong and we gotta stand up against it.”
Tuberville did not name any men’s sports teams that have transitioned en masse in order to win at women’s sports, something that is unlikely since there hasn’t even been a case of one person found to have transitioned for the sole purpose of winning at women’s sports.
Moreover, NCAA President Charlie Baker told the Senate last December that there are “less than 10” transgender athletes competing at the college level in the entire country out of over half a million college athletes.
This issue has long been a priority for Tuberville. In 2021, he tried to attach a measure banning trans girls from participating in school sports to a COVID relief bill.
Earlier this year, Tuberville filed a bill in the Senate to ban transgender girls from participating in school sports, and last year, he filed a bill to block trans women from participating in the Olympics and in amateur leagues. Neither bill passed the Senate.
The lack of support for a transgender sports ban in Congress – despite Republican control of both chambers – could explain why the president issued an executive order on the subject, potentially bypassing the legislature.
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