The Daily Signal - #435: Her Daughter's Competing Against Biological Males in Track. Now This Mom Is Speaking Out.

Episode Date: April 8, 2019

Bianca Stanescu's daughter, Selina, competes in high school track. But transgender athletes are now competing with Selina as well--and it could affect her future in the sport, as well as whether she's seen by college recruiters. Plus: Jennifer Bryson, founder of Let All Play, discusses how biological males playing sports puts women at greater risk of injury. We also cover these stories:•President Trump declares Iran's Revolutionary Guard a "foreign terrorist organization."•Rep. Doug Collins, the no. 1 Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, think it’s time for Special Counsel Robert Mueller to testify.•Sen. Bernie Sanders wants to expand voting rights--to prisoners.The Daily Signal podcast is available on Ricochet, iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play, or Stitcher. All of our podcasts can be found at DailySignal.com/podcasts. If you like what you hear, please leave a review. You can also leave us a message at 202-608-6205 or write us at [e-mail]. Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Tuesday, April 9th. I'm Rachel Del Judas. And I'm Kate Trinco. Today we're talking women's sports and how they're being affected by transgender athletes. Daniel and I speak to a mom of a high school daughter in track and an activist who's warning that transgender athletes could hurt women because they're so much stronger. By the way, if you're enjoying this podcast, please consider leaving a review or a five-star rating on iTunes and encouraging others to subscribe. Now on to our top news.

President Donald Trump announced Monday that Iran's Revolutionary Guard is a, quote, foreign terrorist organization, equating Iran's Revolutionary Guard to a terrorist organization like Hezbollah and Hamas. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said this action of the Trump administration is a way to recognize the threat that Iran is. This designation is a direct response to an outlaw regime and should surprise no one, Pompeo said. The IRGC masquerades as a legitimate military organization, but none of us should be fooled. Secret Service Director Randolph, Ortex, Al's, is reportedly out as director of Secret Service, according to multiple news outlets.

Al's was reporting directly to DHS Secretary Kirsten Nielsen, who resigned on Sunday. It's possible that Al's ouster signals even more turmoil at Homeland Security, with President Trump potentially taking security in a new direction. Kirsten Nielsen, who resigned Sunday from her post as Homeland Security Secretary, thanked the president for the operational. opportunity to serve in his administration, and said she supports his mission of securing the border. In comments delivered to the media outside her home in Alexandria, she said that she is, quote, forever grateful, end quote, for her colleagues in the Department of Homeland Security,

and all they do to, quote, execute their missions to protect the homeland, end quote. I share the president's goal of securing the border, Nielsen said. Trump announced Sunday that Kevin McAleen, Commissioner of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, We'll be replacing Nielsen as acting secretary. Representative Doug Collins, the number one Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, thinks it's time for special counsel Robert Mueller to testify, and he wants it to be this month the week of April 22nd, despite the fact that Congress is scheduled for recess then.

In a letter to Representative Jerry Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a New York Democrat, Collins writes, If you seek both transparency and for the American public, to learn the full contours of the special counsel's investigation, public testimony from Special Counsel Mueller himself is undoubtedly the best way to accomplish this goal. Cases of the measles have greatly increased in the past week.

According to USA Today, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that 465 measles cases have been found in 19 states so far this year, making it, quote, the second highest total since measles was declared eliminated in the U.S. almost two decades ago, end quote. The measles outbreak is being attributed to the anti-vaccination movement as the majority of people coming down with measles have not been vaccinated, according to the CDC. If one person has it, up to 90% of the people close to that person

who are not immune will also become infected, the CDC said. Senator Bernie Sanders wants to expand voting rights to prisoners. In Iowa, asked about his position on the issue. Sanders said per Fox News. In my state, what we do is separate. You're paying a price, you committed a crime, you're in jail. That's bad. And, but you're still living in American society and you have a right to vote.

I believe in that. Yes, I do. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, only two states let people vote while they're in jail, Vermont and Maine. State lawmakers in New York are introducing a bill to force President Trump to release state tax returns. According to the New York Times, the commissioner of the New York Department of Taxation and Finance would be permitted to release any state tax return requested by leaders of three congressional committees for any specific and legitimate legislative purpose. State Senator Brad

Holliman, a Democrat, as sponsoring the bill, called it, quote, a safety valve for any attempt by the White House to block the Congress from doing this at the federal level. Next up, we'll talk to a mom whose high school daughter is affected by transgender athletes entering the track sport. Do you have an opinion that you'd like to share? Leave us a voicemail at 202-608-6205 or email us at Letters atdailySignal.com. Yours could be featured on the Daily Signal podcast. Joining us today is Bianca Stinescu, a mother of a high school daughter who plays track in Connecticut. And Bianca, you are here today because you spoke at the Heritage Foundation's event about women in sports and the threat that transgender athletes posed to that.

So tell us a little bit about your daughter's experience and how that played out. Thanks for having me here today. And yes, I'm here to talk about my daughter, which is a junior in high school. And she's been doing track and feel for most of her life. It's something that she's always dreamed on doing. She's been working very hard. And she is a very accomplished athlete has participated. at state level, as well as advancing to New England and even competed in national levels.

And it's something she's always wanted to do. However, for the past couple of years, she's been having to deal with a lot of disappointment, missing out on opportunities to place and even being left out of the New England Championship in one of the events recently. And just like she said, it's demoralizing. So how exactly did that come about? with regard to transgender athletes? Currently, there is no restriction for anybody to register.

It's just with a pen and a paper. You can do a switch over. And in the end, it's about the freedom of anybody's to express in an educational institution. However, in athletics, it's the biology that counts, and women should have the right to an equal opportunity to succeed, not just to participate. So you're saying in Connecticut right now, anyone, regardless of whether they've had surgery or other procedures, can just say they now identify

as a woman and play these high school sports as a woman? Absolutely. And so has your daughter competed against, you know, biological males who identify as women now? Have they been involved in her track events? Yes. Actually, it affects her in, it has affected her in two events, and she was able to move on into one of them out of New England Championship, she was left out because the first two places were taken over by two boys identifying as girls. So she was left out of that competition. And recently we just found out that one of them has started to also long jump. And within a week, she has become

one of the best jumper in the state. So that was the only event was left for my daughter that had girls-only competition. Well, obviously, you're here today speaking out about it. When did you and your daughter first decide to speak out? Obviously, it's affecting other people in your state. It's something that has affected my daughter ever since ninth grade, and it's something that we took more seriously when a second athlete changed overnight, and we realized that the playing field is no longer fair.

girls do not have the same opportunities to win and succeed as boys do. And it's something that can change overnight. It doesn't give any equal opportunities to girls. And tell us about your daughter, Selena. Why did she get into track? Does she like it? Does she spend a lot of time, for lack of a better term, running around to practice? How does it affect her life?

It's something that I introduced her to since she was a little girl. I also shared the love of skating, so we both still currently teach figure skating, teach little kids, little kids how to skate. But as she got older and she started to do it more and more and ran cross country, it was something that she just always dreamed of being on the track. Running through the woods, not so much, not a long distance runner. So track was her thing, and we started competing together. And it was her dream to be in high school and be part of.

of the track team and have the chance to succeed. So are there other track athletes that you've spoken to that are also upset about what's happening, losing opportunities as women to succeed in sports? I personally try to stay out of that conversation. It's something that I don't know much more about. My daughter has the chance to actually speak to the kids and has learned about their fear and disappointment and the hurt that they have to deal with every day. Some of them considering to giving up, some of them are ready to switch events just to have a fair

chance to win as well as lose. Absolutely. And does this have implications for Selena getting into college? I mean, was she planning to put her track achievements on her college application? Competing college is everything. to her at this point in time. And missing out an opportunity to advance is an opportunity that she can never get back to be noticed by college recruiters and possibly affect her scholarships and even the chance to compete in college. So right now in Congress, there's the

Equality Act that Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats have introduced. How do you feel about the Equality Act? Obviously, there are provisions in there that would kind of make what's happening at your daughter's school on a mass scale in the country allow bylaw. boys to participate in women's sports. How do you feel about the Equality Act right now? It's only so much that I know about this. And I do know that although everybody should have a fair chance, freedom of speech is very important.

Everybody should have also the chance to succeed. And in athletics, where body, it's only thing that matters, women should have a fair chance as well. back in the 70s, women earned a right to compete as women separate from men, and now we're losing it all over again. And when all this was arising, have you gone to, you know, the principal at the high school, at some of these events, leadership, and asked if there's any compromise, do they have to let these biological males participate?

Have you gotten any kind of response? I have actually trying to pursue the Connecticut Association as well as, my school principal. I've met with them two times, and I'm talking about the school principal, as well as the athletic director. And in my district, they found absolutely no need to change anything. That participation, it's all the girls can get. They're getting that right now, and it's good enough for them. However, another mother in the state, her school district has been much more responsive and we're hoping they will make a motion on that to our Connecticut Association. Well, Bianca, thanks so much for joining us.

Do you own an Alexa? You can now get the Daily Signal podcast every day as part of your daily flash briefing. It's easy to do. Just open up your Alexa app, go to settings, and select flash briefing. From there, you can search for the Daily Signal podcast and add it to your flash briefing so you can stay up to date with the top news of the day that the liberal media isn't covering. Joining us is Jennifer Bryson, the founder of Let All Play. She was speaking at an event at the Heritage Foundation about transgender athletes and women's sports. So Jennifer, let's start off.

Why does this topic interest you? I was an athlete as a child and into college. I played water polo in college. As a child, I played competitive soccer, competitive swimming, and competitive ski racing. And I benefited tremendously from the physical and also emotional, experience of learning to compete in a sport and play on a team. And I want girls and women to have a fair opportunity to play. So tell us about how women's soccer has been affected by the issue of biological males entering the women's space. So I'm concerned about sports for girls

and women in general, but today I looked at soccer as one case study of what's happening. So inside of the United States, for example, before 2013, the U.S. Soccer Federation allowed teams to separate based on sex if the local team chose to do so. Whereas starting in 2013, the U.S. Soccer Federation implemented what they called an inclusion policy such that it gives the right, although it's not a legal right, it's just a soccer Federation. The U.S. Soccer Federation's inclusion policy enables individuals who simply identify as another gender, the ability to play soccer on the other team. So a male who identifies as female, whether a boy or a man, can now play on a female team. And this is not only unfair,

as we heard, for example, in the case of track races, where a male may be stronger, faster, but also in soccer, this is dangerous because you've got physical contact on the sport. And if they're male bodies playing, they are going to be stronger and faster and also have greater endurance abilities, most likely. And right now, do they have to show that they've gone through any hormonal procedures, through any surgeries in order to play? Or is it, I mean, do they have to take any legal steps before they can play women's soccer? It really is what is known sometimes as self-identification.

If the person identifies as the other gender, as the policy says, although the policy of the U.S. Soccer Federation never defines the word gender. The U.S. Soccer Federation's policy requires documentation, but the requirement for documentation is so broad and so vague as to be meaningless. And also, if we look at international soccer, we're already seeing situations in professional women's soccer where male bodies are taking spots away from females on teams. There's an example in professional women's soccer in Spain, where a professional male player who then decided to identify as female, then played on a female team.

And in professional women's soccer at the elite level, it means they're taking a space away from a female. This has also happened in Tasmania and also in international soccer in women's World Cup qualifying match. There's already one documented case in the American Samoa team where a male who chose to identify as female got to play on the team. And that means that a woman player from American Samoa did not get to play on the team. And not only that, it means that for the opposing team where they've prepared for their whole soccer careers to play against. females, they're now playing against male players on the field. Right. In a lot of these countries, I assume, would have nothing to, would really not have a concept of transgenderism and not really embrace that. So, I mean, on the world stage,

I guess, I mean, it's one thing for the American Soccer Committee to make these rules, but for the Olympic Committee, have they also made similar rules? Well, let me, with the Olympic Committee, across Olympic sports now, they have, opened up this, what I think is a very peculiar policy about just simply a measurement of testosterone. So it really could open the floodgates in Olympic soccer. But because the Olympics are only every four years, we haven't seen that policy yet hit the Olympics, but I think we will soon. But with the Olympic policy, it's very problematic only to consider testosterone levels because body structure is different. Males and female bodies have, for example, a different pelvis

structure and male legs are straighter than female legs because of the different pelvis structure, which can give men greater strength and speed. Now, with the international level, most international teams at their national team, even the U.S. Soccer Federation will not allow transgenderism at the professional level and the national team level. They're still protecting those based on sex. But I think that's a really artificial distinction right now, because the entire feeder that leads up to us having great female players starts in elementary school. And we're going to be deterring girls from having fair opportunities and also safe opportunities from elementary school on up with this transgenderism policy.

Do you have any insight as to how women's soccer players in general feel? about these changes? I would imagine that they're, I mean, maybe some of them accepted, but I would imagine they would feel on edge because it's fewer spots for them to compete for. One of the things that's so difficult is there's so few opportunities already in high-level soccer with girls and women that many individuals just are afraid to speak out.

Even in my own lifetime, this has changed. When I was born, there was no such thing as a women's world cup. There is now. When I played soccer in elementary school, my high school didn't even have a girls' soccer team. And so these developments are new enough that the individuals who have these opportunities, they're afraid to speak out on these issues because of social pressure. They don't want to lose that one rare window of opportunity they have as teenagers and into their 20s, maybe early 30s.

And so one of the reasons I've chosen to speak out is because I saw how much social pressure the actual players face. And so others right now are going to need to speak out. You just mentioned that the Women's World Cup didn't exist when you were younger. And, you know, as frequent listeners of this show, no, I don't know anything about sports and I don't follow them. But you are obviously a sports person. What does it mean to you to have something like that available? And what would be lost to girls if that, if the Women's World Cup became, you know, essentially? the both-gender World Cup.

It would be the end of the Women's World Cup because the male players would dominate. And also, I think there are top female players who would be afraid to play because of the safety risk. But also, it's not just the soccer. Sports represents so much more in culture. And for me, for example, as a fan,

and also as a woman fan, I'm thrilled to get to see women have opportunities to excel in sports. And one of those examples is for women to excel in soccer. And it would for me and others mean having role models taken out of the public square. It would have that public witness taken out of the square that girls and women can do this. And in girls and women soccer, there are parts of the world right now where that's still opposed. and they barely have any opportunities. So for something that's so new and still fragile to be threatened by transgenderism,

and especially let's look at the soccer world that's so male dominated, boys and men already have the entire world open to them. It's not fair that some of them now, just based on this language thing of saying, I identify as a girl or identify as a woman, can now also expand their dominance to take over soccer for girls and women. You also mentioned a safety risk. Can you expand on some of the safety risks to women?

So the male body is stronger and the testosterone advantage that males have starts already in utero. And that strength involves both the amount of muscle, that male bodies have, the size of the male body, and also the greater endurance that male bodies have. And while people might not think of endurance always as a safety issue, if you have somebody who has far greater endurance combined with far greater strength, a player who has less strength and also is struggling with endurance has a double risk with a safety difference. So one of the criticisms people make is how many transgender athletes can there be? I mean, it's a very small percentage of the U.S. population right now. How big a problem actually is this?

And I think the problem right now isn't the numbers, because this is something that is relatively new. But I ask, well, is there some arbitrary number at which this becomes a problem? What number of preventable injuries for girls and women, are we willing to tolerate in the name of accepting transgenderism? What is the number of athletic opportunities denied to girls and women? Are we willing to accept in the name of transgenderism? It really is just unfair. And that also has a cultural impact that I have a very much worry that this transgenderism issue is fostering a cultural acceptance of unfairness and cheating. And one of the great things about sports is it teaches young people,

even if they don't make it into the highest, you know, college or professional leagues, that fairness and honesty and following the rules matter. And we need to maintain that culturally. Well, Jennifer Bryson is founder of Let All Play. Jennifer, where can our listeners find your group? At let allplay.org and on Twitter at Let All Play. Perfect. Thanks for joining us. Thank you.

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