The following piece was submitted to the Boston Globe last week as an op-ed. We received no response. The vast majority of Americans agree that men and boys should not be permitted to compete in sports designated for women and girls. It’s time for the mainstream media to acknowledge that.
A man will compete in the female category in the Boston Marathon today. According to the website hecheated.org, Riya Young Suising, born Robert Chien Hwa Young, has competed in the female category in races more than 330 times, including at least eight Boston Marathons, and placed on the podium for his age group more than 130 times. His presence in the female category in Boston this year will harm all female competitors, including former world record-holder, Paula Radcliffe.
Not only does Boston allow men into its female category, it also has a “non-binary” category, predictably dominated by men. The qualifying times for the “non-binary” category are the same as the women’s times, meaning men who claim to be “non-binary” can ‘earn’ a coveted Boston Qualifier despite running up to 30 minutes slower than men who don’t claim a special identity. So men get three categories for fair competition, while women get none. Young only secured a place by lying about his sex, as he failed to run the men’s qualifying time for his age group.
Far from being unique, Young is part of a trend, or rather a tidal wave, of men and boys (often called “transgender women and girls”) competing in women’s and girls’ sports.
An August 2024 report by Reem Alsalem, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, stated that as of last March, over 600 female athletes in more than 400 competitions have lost more than 890 medals in 29 different sports to males.
The website shewon.org, dedicated to “archiving the achievements of female athletes displaced by males in women’s sporting events and other types of competitions expressly for women,” states that more than 1500 female athletes in more than 900 competitions have lost more than 2100 medals in 44 different sports to males.
A January 2025 poll conducted by the New York Times and Ipsos indicated that 79 percent of American voters, including 67 percent of Democrats and 64 percent of Independents, don’t think men should be in women’s sports.
In February, President Trump signed Executive Order 14201, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.” Since the EO, the U.S. Department of Education is pursuing at least six state-wide Title IX investigations in addition to dozens of investigations into individual universities and school districts.
Simply put: There are two immutable sexes, male and female. We play sports with bodies, not “identities.” A man can never be a woman, regardless of cross-sex hormones and surgeries, regardless of falsified documents. Everyone knows this.
How did we get here? Janice Raymond is a radical feminist lesbian and professor emerita of women’s studies and medical ethics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, having served on its faculty since 1978. In 1979 she published a groundbreaking book, The Transsexual Empire, in which she explained how allowing men to call themselves women harms women and girls as a sex class. In 1994, she published a reprint of the book, warning readers of the emergence of a new device: the word “transgender.” When she retired in 2002, the Boston Globe included her among several “marquee talents.”
Article 7 of the Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights states that women have the right to participate in sports and physical education designated for women only: “To ensure fairness and safety for women and girls, the entry of boys and men who claim to have female ‘gender identities’ into teams, competitions, facilities, or changing rooms, inter alia, set aside for women and girls should be prohibited as a form of sex discrimination.”
If you agree that no man or boy should compete in women’s sports, please contact the individuals and groups below, all of whom are committed to protecting the sex-based rights of women and girls, including exclusion of men and boys from athletic competitions designated exclusively for female athletes.
Join us to save women’s sports!
Mara Yamauchi, Two-time Olympian and member, Advisory Group, Sex Matters
Elizabeth Chesak, Women’s Declaration International USA
Kara Dansky, Democratic Women’s Declaration
Martina Navratilova
Jenny Poyer Ackerman, Democrats for an Informed Approach to Gender
Jennifer Sey, XX-XY Athletics
Kim Jones and Marshi Smith, Independent Council on Women’s Sports
Sharon Byrne, Women’s Liberation Front
Janice Raymond, Professor Emerita, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Riley Gaines, 12-time NCAA All-American swimmer
Selina Soule, women’s sports advocate
Linda Blade, International Consortium on Female Sport
Emily Kaht, Marathon runner
