PJI Center For Public Policy Steps Into the Ring For Wisconsin Women’s Sports

PACIFIC JUSTICE INSTITUTE – CENTER FOR PUBLIC POLICY

SALEM, OR – Having assisted multiple states with bills aimed at protecting women’s sports, the Pacific Justice Institute Center for Public Policy (PJI) is doing so again – this time in Wisconsin.

On May 26, PJI staff attorney Ray Hacke will testify before the Wisconsin legislature concerning two bills, AB 195/SB 323 and AB 196/SB 322.  The former bill, if enacted, would require state colleges and universities to classify intercollegiate athletic teams as male, female, or coed based on the sexes of participating students. The latter would do the same for Wisconsin public schools fielding teams in interscholastic athletics. Both bills would prohibit males from competing on teams designated for females and require that sex be determined by a physician at birth.

Hacke has already testified before legislatures in North Dakota, South Dakota, Missouri and Montana – either in person or via videoconferencing – and has advised lawmakers in Arkansas, Hawaii, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and West Virginia concerning their women’s sports bills.  A constitutional law attorney who has covered women’s sports as a journalist and who coaches his daughter in softball and basketball, Hacke is the author of an article titled “Girls Will Be Boys, and Boys Will Be Girls”: The Emergence of the Transgender Athlete and a Defensive Game Plan For High Schools That Want to Keep Their Playing Fields Level – For Athletes of Both Genders. Published in multiple legal journals, Hacke’s article explains how the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause and Title IX, the federal law aimed at providing equal educational opportunities for women and girls, all but mandate that schools maintain separate teams for boys and girls to ensure that girls get a full and fair opportunity to compete.

“Since Title IX’s passage in 1972, courts all over the country have made abundantly clear that because girls are typically at a physiological disadvantage when competing against boys, letting boys compete in girls’ sports would relegate girls to being runners-up, benchwarmers, or spectators in their own sports,” Hacke said. “That would effectively deny them an equal opportunity to compete and undermine Title IX’s purpose completely.”

Wisconsin – where PJI is opening an office on June 1 – aims to protect women’s sports at a time when President Biden’s administration is attempting to undermine Title IX by threatening to pull federal funding from schools that do not allow transgender athletes to compete on teams designated for the opposite sex.

“Let’s be clear: Bills like Wisconsin’s do not deny transgender athletes the opportunity to compete in interscholastic sports,” PJI President Brad Dacus said. “Transgender athletes are demanding to dictate the terms on which they can compete. While transgender people deserve compassion and understanding, their ‘rights’ should not be advanced at the expense of the rights of biological women. The time has come to draw the line, and sports is the best place to draw it.”

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