In the past two weeks, Wisconsin Assembly Representatives Barbara Dittrich and Dan Knodl introduced two bills requiring athletes to compete on sports teams and use locker rooms that align with their birth sex. AB 100 refers to public schools, and AB 102 refers to state universities. These bills seek to protect female athletes in the locker room and on the playing field.
As a female collegiate athlete in Wisconsin, I am thankful to see these legislators boldly working to protect me and my fellow female athletes. Since I started college in 2021, cross-country season has been the highlight of each school year. Through my participation in cross-country, I’ve experienced firsthand the benefits of playing sports at a collegiate level: friendship with teammates, personal growth, and leadership opportunities. In recent years, the rapid increase of males who identify as women playing on women’s sports teams has pushed women out of women’s sports. I hope that Wisconsin legislators and Governor Tony Evers will view this topic with common sense: males belong on men’s sports’ teams and in men’s locker rooms, period.
While some activists view these bills as discriminatory and harmful, they fail to recognize the destructive impacts biological males participating in women’s sports have on women and on women’s sports.
First, allowing biological males in women’s locker rooms denies women a safe space to simply change and shower. Women have a right to private, biologically female only spaces. As female athlete who changes in a school locker room every day before and after practice, I can’t imagine how uncomfortable and unsafe I would feel changing in a locker room with a biological male. Subjugation to such conditions would probably lead me to quit the sport that I love. Female athletes like me shouldn’t have to choose between sports and our safety. We deserve a place where we can change safely.
"Female athletes like me shouldn’t have to choose between sports and our safety."
In recent years, more and more women have voiced their feelings about biological males invading women-only spaces. The most famous example is NCAA all-American swimmer Riley Gaines. She and her teammates were forced to share locker rooms with biological male “Lia” Thomas. One female athlete, Kylee Alons, chose to change in a storage closet rather than to change with Thomas. “I was racing Olympic gold medalists and I was changing in a storage closet,” Alons shared. “My privacy and safety were being violated in the locker room.”[1]
In a case closer to home, about two years ago four female freshman high schoolers in Sun Prairie were showering in their swimsuits when an 18-year-old senior male fully undressed and showered with them.[2] In an attempt at inclusivity, school districts and universities are violating women and denying them the basic right of a safe space to change. Yes, keeping men out of women’s spaces may be exclusive, but that’s the point. Women deserve an exclusively female-only space where they can change and shower.
Second, allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports denies women the opportunities and achievements they have rightfully earned. It’s a well-known fact that men are stronger and faster than women. I’ve experienced the differences between male and female athletic ability firsthand in my cross-country experience. Although the men’s and women’s cross-country teams at my school follow similar training programs and put in comparable amounts of work, I come nowhere close to the speed of similarly achieving male cross-country runners at my school. Although I am typically one of the fastest runners on my team, when the men’s and women’s teams complete workouts together, I am often lapped at least once by multiple male runners.
Women are simply physically unable to compete at the male level. But don’t just take my word for it. A study published by the National Library of Medicine states, “Most elite sports are divided into male and female divisions because of the greater athletic performance displayed by males. Without the sex division, females would have little chance of winning because males are faster, stronger, and have greater endurance capacity. Male physiology underpins their better athletic performance including increased muscle mass and strength, stronger bones, different skeletal structure, better adapted cardiorespiratory systems, and early developmental effects on brain networks that wires males to be inherently more competitive and aggressive.”[3]
While some argue that so-called estrogen “therapy” will level the playing field, the science speaks otherwise. While estrogen “therapy” decreases muscle mass, strength, and aerobic capacity, it cannot erase the male physical advantages in the brain, skeletal structure, and cardiorespiratory system. Even years of estrogen “therapy” cannot reverse the physiological differences in males and females that begin before birth. The study concludes, “Given that sports are currently segregated into male and female divisions because of superior male athletic performance, and that estrogen therapy will not reverse most athletic performance parameters, it follows that transgender women will enter the female division with an inherent advantage because of their prior male physiology . . . .The inclusion of transwomen in the elite female division needs to be reconsidered for fairness to female-born athletes.”[3]
Women deserve the opportunity to exceed in women’s sports. As an athlete, I’ve experienced firsthand the dedication needed to excel in sports. The competition of women against women is rigorous enough without throwing in the impossible challenge of biological males with inherent physiological advantages. Sure, some women are stronger than some men. But the strongest men will always be stronger than the strongest women.
Allowing biological men to compete in women’s sports gives the honors and opportunities to men who glide easily to the top rather than to us women who give every ounce of ourselves but are physically unable to compete at the male level. And that’s what’s happening. A United Nation’s study titled “Violence against Women and Girls in Sports” states that as of March 2024 “over 600 female athletes in more than 400 competitions have lost more than 890 medals [to biological males] in 29 different sports.”[4] Women deserve the opportunity to succeed in women’s sports. In my years of cross-country, I’ve had good races and bad ones. Losing is hard enough when the competition is fair, but I can’t imagine how incensed I would be to lose in unfair competition against a male. Competing in sports requires an immense amount of sacrifice, grit, and determination. No wonder women like Riley Gaines are outraged when men receive the honors that they deserve. Female athletes like me dedicate far too much grit, determination, and sacrifice to the sports that we love to remain silent while men receive the trophies that we have rightfully earned.
"Female athletes like me dedicate far too much grit, determination, and sacrifice to the sports that we love to remain silent while men receive the trophies that we have rightfully earned."
It’s time to get back to common sense policies in Wisconsin. Unfortunately, Governor Evers has vowed to veto any so-called “discriminatory” legislation like these bills. My fellow female athletes and I can only hope and pray that he and similarly minded legislators will have a change of heart and recognize that our safety in the locker room and achievements on the playing field are worth defending.
—Anna, a Wisconsin collegiate athlete
As of March 21, 2025, AB 100 and AB 102 have both passed out of the Assembly chamber and await scheduling for the Senate floor.
