© Erin Bormett/Argus LeaderSouth Dakota Governor Kristi Noem
Instead, she issued an executive order amid pressure from social conservatives that urged high school and public university women sports programs to only permit girls and women whose birth certificates listed them as female to participate, according to the news service.
Noem now is reportedly seeking to codify that executive order as legislation to promote "an equal playing field" for women.
Noem said in a statement:
"Common sense tells us that males have an unfair physical advantage over females in athletic competition. This issue is about basic fairness - "only girls are playing girls' sports."The AP notes, however, that transgender advocates say the proposed legislation is an attack on transgender people and would do little to actually promote the welfare and equality of women in society. Jett Jonelis, American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota manager, said in response, according to the news service:
"Gov. Noem's proposed legislation is clearly fueled by a fear and misunderstanding of transgender people in our state."
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"... a primary reason for the sex differences in the physical attributes that contribute to elite athletic performance is exposure to much higher levels of testosterone during male pubertal growth. Those physical attributes include power generation, aerobic power, body composition and fuel utilization. Compared to females, males have greater lean body mass (more skeletal muscle and less fat), larger hearts (both in absolute terms and scaled to lean body mass), higher cardiac outputs, larger hemoglobin mass, larger VO2 max (i.e. a person’s ability to take in oxygen), greater glycogen utilization, and higher anaerobic capacity.
The result of this differential is the performance gap between males and females that justifies the existence of a women’s category in competitive sports. That gap typically extends to 10-12%. Without an eligibility rule based in sex-linked traits, we wouldn’t see female bodies on any podium. Equally important, without such an eligibility rule, it’s unlikely that societies could continue legally to sustain separate girls and women’s only sport. The set-aside is premised on inherent biological differences between the sexes. If that basis were eliminated, it’s unclear how the classification would pass muster under standard legal anti-discrimination analysis."
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