NJ trans swimmer stealing more victories from real girls (Opinion)

Women's sports and women's spaces are under attack and very few people are standing up to stop it.

One brave voice has been Riley Gaines, the swimmer from Kentucky who had to share a first-place finish with trans athlete Lia Thomas but only Thomas was awarded the gold in that event.

She has been an outspoken opponent of biological males competing in women's sports to protect future female athletes from having their opportunities stolen and their dreams shattered.

For her trouble, she has been terrorized and vilified as "transphobic" simply for standing up for what is right.

Her fight, as those of a handful of others, is not about prejudice or transphobia, it's about fairness.

Males who go through puberty and then decide to identify as women have advantages in strength, muscle mass, bone density and speed.

Lia Thomas won an Ivy League gold medal as a female swimmer, smashing the previous record by a full 7 seconds. Earlier in his collegiate career as William Thomas, he was ranked 462nd as a male swimmer.

Now New Jersey has its version of Lia Thomas. It's Meghan Cortez-Fields, who broke a Ramapo College swimming record earlier this month.

Cortez-Fields is a senior and swims on the women's team but swam on the men's team for three years at Ramapo.

Anyone involved in or concerned about women's athletics should be outraged. As the father of a former female student-athlete, I know I am.

But imagine Brenda Arthur, the former Ramapo College swimmer who held the previous record since 2016. Very few people have come forward to express their outrage and put a stop to this heinous unfairness and insanity.

Former Olympic athlete Bruce Jenner, who transitioned and identifies as Caitlyn Jenner, has come out against biological males competing in women's sports.

So has tennis great Martina Navratilova.

Those two high-profile voices should carry enough weight and experience to convince anyone watching that what is going on is wrong.

It is up to the New Jersey Legislature to correct this injustice now. Over a dozen states have already banned trans athletes from competing in women's sports.

It's not prejudiced or discriminatory. It's fair and just. But in today's world, doing the right thing and telling the truth takes courage. Something that our Legislature is sorely lacking.

It is not "politically correct" but it is in fact and in reality, correct.

It is amazing and outrageous that in this society where we have worked so hard to push for women's rights and respect in all fields, and especially in the arena of sports, we sit quietly by and allow the dreams and opportunities of young women to be stolen. All because we don't want to hurt the feelings of a small handful of people.

I am all for trans people expressing themselves and living their best life however they choose. But when it comes to stealing victories from young girls, this nonsense has to stop now!

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Dennis Malloy only.

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