Delano Squires: LeBron James, Serena Williams, activists athletes should publicly defend women athletes against transgender invasion

Professional sports have been completely taken over by politics. What started with athletes protesting during the national anthem and demanding team support for political causes has culminated in the leagues themselves using courts, fields, and jerseys to promote "racial equity" and major corporations weighing in on proposed state legislation.

Conspicuously absent from the list of causes worthy of increased awareness are the girls and women who have publicly opposed the inclusion of biological males in women's sports. State laws that attempt to restrict girls' sports to biological females have been characterized in corporate media outlets from USA Today to ESPN as attacks against transgender athletes. The Biden administration withdrew from a federal lawsuit in Connecticut that tried to limit participation in girls' sports to female athletes. The passage of the Equality Act by the House of Representatives early this year further demonstrates that the girls fighting for athletic fairness have as little support among elected officials as they do in corporate media or pop culture.

I find it fascinating that no professional leagues, high-profile players, or social justice activists have spoken up to say anything about how these changes will impact girls and women who have trained from a young age to compete at the highest levels. The WNBA has carved out a reputation for being very active in protesting racial justice causes, but it has been completely silent on an issue that could have a direct impact on the league. The same can be said for Jemele Hill, Serena Wiliams, LeBron James, and Megan Rapinoe. Each one has argued for using their platforms to speak for the voiceless and advocate for the marginalized.

This issue shows the limits of activism in sports. Players and sports journalists know that engaging in social justice causes, whether on or off the court, can improve their public profile as long as the issue is in line with the cultural zeitgeist. What's more difficult, and much less culturally rewarding, is to come out against a policy that many see as the latest frontier of justice for an oppressed group.

This type of selective activism is a sign of cowardice.

The most elite female athletes know that their male counterparts are bigger, stronger, and faster and that no amount of hormone therapy can totally eradicate those physical advantages. They are afraid of saying anything that would offend the transgender community or bring them criticism on social media. They sit by as girls suffer the public indignity of standing on the podium and smiling as a biological male walks away with medals and prize money that is meant for female athletes.

The left's radical views on sex and gender are the types of changes that destabilize societies. While they focus on race — which is literally skin deep — they completely ignore the long-term physical, emotional, and societal impacts of rejecting the body'snatural design and telos. People who think their bodies and minds are in conflict with one another need care and compassion, specifically because I believe that God created males and females equal in dignity and worth but different in composition and function. People who don't share my Christian convictions should at least trust science enough to know that while much of the public debate about gender identity focuses on what people feel and believe, athletics are largely an exercise in what the body can do. Thinking you were born in the wrong body doesn't change the physical advantages that body provides. Unfortunately, too few people are willing to acknowledge that fact. Activist athletes want to be seen as revolutionaries ushering in a new age of social equality. They're not. The only thing radical about them is their conformity to whatever opinions the cultural gatekeepers deem acceptable.