In an interview about the All-Atlantic Regional Championships that took place on March 1-2, Houghton University President Dr. Wayne Lewis Jr. said he would not condone men competing in women's sports after a biological male beat all of the female athletes at the track meet.
A male Rochester Institute of Technology student who goes by the name Sadie Schreiner took first place in the women's 200-meter event, reportedly bumping one of Houghton's female athletes into fifth place.
"It is wrong to let biological males compete in girls' and women's athletics," Dr. Lewis declared. "I reached the place where I could no longer remain silent on this issue."
NewBostonPost reporter Tom Joyce points out that the current NCAA president, former Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker (R), signed a bathroom access bill into law in 2016 for those who identify as "transgender."
In 2022, shortly after Baker became the NCAA president, the NCAA Board of Governors updated the transgender student-athlete participation policy governing college sports with a sport-by-sport approach preserving "opportunity for transgender student-athletes while balancing fairness, inclusion, and safety for all who compete."
Joyce says what is going on at the college level is "unfortunate" and "frustrating."
"Seeing Charlie Baker … get that position, it kind of puts a damper on the idea that sanity may prevail in the NCAA," he states. "But at the same time, it's great to see individual colleges, college presidents calling out the madness."
Even if they cannot do anything about the NCAA policy, Joyce says college presidents like Dr. Lewis may be able to deter male athletes who are pretending to be women and girls from going to their schools, taking spots on their teams, and harming the integrity of the sports at their schools.
