The NCAA Chose These States to Host Games Despite Threats to Boycott States with ‘Anti-Transgender’ Laws

President Joe Biden signed an executive order that calls on government schools to allow boys to compete against girls in sports and share girls’ private spaces like restrooms and locker rooms, so state legislatures took action. Lawmakers across the country have introduced bills that protect fair competition for women and girls in sports by barring men from competing against women.

Among the 32 states with bills in various stages of the legislative process, five states now have Save Women’s Sports laws on the books: Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Mississippi, and Tennessee. Governors in Kansas, North Dakota, and South Dakota vetoed bills, but the latter’s governor, Kristi Noem, issued two executive orders to protect fair competition in sports.

The NCAA, which requires men who want to compete against women to take testosterone-suppression drugs for at least a year, announced in April that it will boycott states with “transgender” bans. A British sports journal concluded that men still outperform women even after taking suppression drugs for a year.

Despite the threatened boycott, the NCAA recently named states where 16 NCAA women’s softball tournaments will be held. Among these states are Alabama, Arkansas, and Tennessee — three states that bar men from competing against women in sports. The Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins commented on the announcements:

Instead of choosing locations based upon its empty threats, it seems the NCAA chose based upon its usual criteria: “team performance, quality of facilities, and financial considerations,” as well as the additional pandemic-era criteria: “ability to meet the NCAA’s COVID-19 protocols.”

The NCAA’s decision shouldn’t have made news because there was nothing new in the decision. Yet it ignited a firestorm of controversy. An op-ed in USA Today by Nancy Armour labelled the women’s sports bills as “draconian,” “dangerous nonsense,” and an attempt to “otherize” people who identify as transgender from a “radical” group “hellbent on inflaming the culture wars,” and willing to “twist facts” to do it. Ironically, she levels these charges at conservatives, who are usually the victims of these things.

Perkins said that “woke” corporations are playing with fire. Conservative legislatures and governors are standing their ground against the cultural onslaught of the “transgender” and so-called critical race theory (CRT) movements.

But conservatives must continue to fight back. A conservative group has launched an ad campaign against “woke” corporations that push CRT. According to CNBC, the ads target the CEOs of Coca-Cola, American Airlines, and Nike.