This time it’s a male pitcher tearing it up in girls softball
An organization that works to “protect fairness, safety, and equal opportunity for women and girls in sports” is suing various officials in the state of Minnesota for allowing boys to compete against girls in sporting events.
Via the Alliance Defending Freedom, Female Athletes United names Attorney General Keith Ellison, Commissioner on Civil Rights Rebecca Lucero, and Commissioner of Education Willie Jett among others as defendants in the suit.
The official policy of the Minnesota State High School League, which governs high school athletics in the state, is to allow students to compete “based on their stated gender identity without regard for sex.” This has been the case for a decade, now.
According to an ADF press release, Minnesota high school members of Female Athletes United “have been forced to compete against a male athlete,” a pitcher, in softball.
One FAU member said she had to play against the male in varsity softball over two years, and team losses led to not having a chance to make the state tournament. In a regular season game, “the FAU member’s team didn’t score at all; the male athlete pitched seven strikeouts.”
Another FAU member, a pitcher like the male in question, “decided to quit” the club softball of which she and the male were teammates because she’d have had to compete against him for playing time.
A third female noted she was once hit by a pitch from the male, the “speed and strength” of which “made the pain more intense than she has felt at other times getting hit by a pitch thrown by a girl.”
According to the suit, all three FAU members believe “competing against males in their sports is unfair, discouraging, and limits their ability to enjoy participating in sports.”
Inherent biological advantages “are central to softball performance,” the suit notes. “In pitching, male advantage manifests through throwing faster and farther. Greater wingspan and larger hands provide advantages for grip, potentially giving increased control in putting spin on the ball.
“Males also have an advantage in hitting and running—they can hit harder and run faster.”
The plaintiffs seek an injunction barring males from playing against females in “contact sports or sports involving competitive athletic skill” along with “reasonable attorneys’ fees and expenses.”
Male athletes competing against girls in various sports in progressive states have made the news quite a bit of late. Soren Stark-Chessa in Maine has been winning mid- and long distance races in track and field; California’s AB Hernández has done the same in (girls) triple and long jump; and in Oregon, Lia Rose won the girls high jump at a Portland event.
MORE: Boy wins girls HS track events in Maine; parents are both college professors
IMAGE CAPTION & CREDIT: Sign denouncing the participation of males in female sports; Inez Fletcher/X