Keeping Women's Athletics for Women
A dad/coach goes viral
Women’s athletics is a hot topic right now, as it should be after the February 5, 2025, Executive Order banning men from competing in women’s sports. However, we cannot be complacent. We need to hold our local school districts and sports federations accountable for keeping women’s sports female.
Coming from our sisters at MA4Women, a track and field coach and father named Allen Cornwall from Maine goes viral on Xitter. I cut and paste his words here for those of us who do not use Xitter:
From Allen Cornwall Father of a former female athlete, coach, official and man who says ENOUGH is ENOUGH!
For the 30% of people who think allowing boys in girls sports, let me tell you what I see as a pole vault official in the state of Maine. I see the hollow looks and faces of dejection on these girls knowing that they can no longer compete for the top of the podium. I see the faces of parents that watch in frustration that the hard work that their daughters have put in for 3 ½ years will not be able to be able to be properly reward with a fair chance to win a state championship or end up on the podium with their peers.
I hear the whispers of the crowd of how this is “so wrong” but people are afraid to speak up because they are afraid that they will be blackballed or labelled as a bigot. I have been one of these people who is very upset by this but didn’t want to lose what I love in life (coaching young people to be better well-rounded people and potentially very good athletes). I have watched the college volleyball players refuse to play against a team with a transgender athlete. I have read about a group of middle school shot putters who all walked up and dropped their shots rather than have to compete against a biological boy. Most of us have seen the story of the University of Kentucky women’s swimmers have to not only compete against a biological male, but to have to change in front of and to see a biological male in the locker room.
Who am I as a man if I do not say “NO BOYS IN GIRLS SPORTS”, when the brave girls and women have sacrificed so much more than I ever could. The Maine Principals Associations ( x.com/MPA_Sports ) who governs the rules of high school sports in Maine, previously had a rule in place that a child must partake in hormone therapy for a year prior to being able to compete in the sport of their choice. While I strongly believe that no child should be subjected to puberty blockers or gender related surgical procedures, this was the requirements set forth by the MPA. This year the MPA has changed their stance by eliminating their gender and identity committee and changing their ruling that children are allowed to compete as the gender that they identify as AND that the determination is up to that students school district as they know that student the best. This is an act of coward on the part of the MPA as they are seeing the changes in the way that these matters are being addressed and they want to pass the liability to the schools.
In the UK there was a world-renowned gender clinic called Tavistock. The National Health Service (NHS) in the UK is longer providing gender reassignment or puberty blockers to children. Tavistock is now being sued as part of a class action lawsuit for “multiple failures of duty of care” towards pediatric patients suffering from gender dysphoria. The MPA did not want to be on the receiving end of a similar class action lawsuit, so they changed the rules and put a large part of it in the hands of the schools. There is no consideration for the impact on the girls at the opposing schools in this ruling. It is cowardice!
Tomorrow I will watch 22 girls compete against a biological male in the pole vault. The comparative difference between girls highs and boys heights is typically about 4 feet. For example, the world record for a male is 20’-6”, the world record for a woman is 16’-7”. This translates pretty well right down the line. A 12-foot-high school girl vaulter is the equivalent of a boys 16-foot vaulter. The logic behind this is that in the history of Maine there has been ONE (1) girl that has gone over 12 feet. For comparison there have been 3 boys over 16t feet, but they have had a longer tenure at vaulting.
Why is this important. The vaulter tomorrow competed 2 years as a boy and has a PR (personal record) of 12’. It is clear that this boy has much wider shoulder and significantly more leg muscles that the girls that they will be competing against. The general feeling from people is that they empathize with what the child and the family are going through and that there should be a dedicated non-binary or open category for people who want to compete as such.
The US House of Representatives just passed The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025. Our Maine US House of Representatives, Jared Golden and Chellie Pingree both voted against this act. I implore our Maine US Congresspersons to use sound logic in protecting the rights of girls and women in sports and giving the protections women were granted by Title IX.
Wrong is wrong, even if no one dares say it out loud. What I am asking is that you do say it out loud by writing to your Maine US Congresspeople (Susan Collins and Angus King) and ask them to vote in favor of The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025. I have written to them both on this matter. I ask you to please do the same. Below are the websites for both of them. It is easy
The punchline:
I see the hollow looks and faces of dejection on these girls knowing that they can no longer compete for the top of the podium. I see the faces of parents that watch in frustration that the hard work that their daughters have put in for 3 ½ years will not be able to be able to be properly reward with a fair chance to win a state championship or end up on the podium with their peers.
I wish all adults were as courageous as Allen Cornwall!
Here is a partial list of organizations dedicated to keeping women’s athletics female. Sign up for their mailing lists. Follow them on social media if you use those. Add our voices to theirs and make a difference for girls’ and women’s athletics.
He Cheated (h/t CH)
Independent Council on Women's Sports (ICONS)
Women's Declaration International USA
Women's Sports Policy Working Group
And support our sisters at MA4Women.
As a reminder, contact PIAA and demand they keep athletics safe and fair for PA girls and women.
Correction: In my February 20, 2025 post, I wrote that student Emi Wong Shing is a trans-identifying male. She is not. Emi is an adult human female — a woman. Thank you CH for bringing this to my attention. I apologize for my error.