Pretty much every person on this planet has said things that if they could go back and watch themselves on video they’d likely wish they could take back.
Unfortunately for the people represented by Democrat Natasha Marcus in the North Carolina Senate, Sen. Marcus is not one of those people even though she should be after what she said during a committee hearing Tuesday on the GOP-sponsored Senate version of the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act.”
The bill’s primary sponsor, Sen. Vickie Sawyer (R-Iredell), opened the floor to questions after noting that she used to be a female athlete and that she knowingly once signed up to play on a co-ed team, but that her situation was different from a woman signing up to play on a women’s sports team and then later learning that a man who identifies as a woman will also be allowed to either compete for her spot or play against her.
Marcus was the first one to ask questions and provide her opinion on the bill, at times bizarrely laughing and then at one point claiming it was unnecessary since there are allegedly only a few transgender athletes in North Carolina. She also said that there are bigger issues that they should be tackling than supposedly targeting a small group of people who were just looking to fit in, which suggests that in Marcus’ view protecting women’s safety and opportunities is not important.
Marcus also suggested that the transgender athletes who made women uncomfortable were not unlike Sen. Sawyer, who Marcus said probably made the men on her sports team feel uncomfortable back in the day.
It was after Marcus made her comments about transgender athletes making women feel uncomfortable that she proclaimed that “it’s worth it” for women to feel that discomfort if it means transgender athletes get to play in their places.
Marcus also mockingly downplayed a very serious incident that actually happened in North Carolina involving a female high school volleyball player who suffered a concussion and other serious injuries during a game after a transgender “female” volleyball player spiked the ball over the net so hard it hit her in the head at what reportedly was an unusually high rate of speed.
The Carolina Journal reported on Marcus’ remarks:
“[It might make other people a little] uncomfortable in some cases but it’s worth it,” Marcus said. “I understand there was one report at a volleyball game where it’s unclear if the athlete was a trans athlete and if that was the reason, injuries happen. I will point out injuries happen in sports all the time we don’t need legislation to try to protect everyone and in every case.Marcus went on to say that the bill violates Title IX protections under federal law and doesn’t understand why things like gun violence in schools and teacher shortages aren’t being discussed instead.
Watch:
The willful ignorance on display by Marcus on this issue was staggering, but that’s really nothing new coming from her.
First, apparently, Marcus doesn’t understand the difference between knowingly volunteering to play on a co-ed team as Sawyer did versus signing up to play on a team that is supposed to be segregated on the basis of sex.
Secondly, it doesn’t matter if there was only “one report” of a female athlete getting injured as a result of a transgender “female” athlete’s superior strength. We pass laws in this state based on singular incidents all the time. And in this case it’s especially necessary because the women who play on women’s sports teams do not do so with the intention of competing against members of the opposite sex who are stronger and faster than they are and who have the ability not only to take away their opportunities but to physically hurt them.
Case in point, the volleyball player in question, Payton McNabb, who told her story this week to the North Carolina press alongside “Save Women’s Sports” spokeswoman Riley Gaines:
Gaines tweeted about the incident involving McNabb and the transgender player on her Twitter feed:
Below is a bigger video clip of what happened to McNabb. As a result of this incident, her school district announced they would forfeit all future games against the team (Highlands School) with the transgender player:
As for Marcus’ claim that the bill violates Title IX? Who does she think she’s kidding here? NC Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt set her straight:
“If we are truly to maintain a level playing field in women’s sports, biological sex must supersede gender preference,” said NC Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt, the mother of two daughters. “There are inherent and intrinsic biological differences between men and women that impact and boys and girls that impact athletic performance.”[…]“This is why we needed Title IX protections in the first place, and this is why Title IX is so important,” she said.
As for Marcus suggesting that it was “worth it” for women and girls to have to go through feeling uncomfortable (and unsafe) if it meant a man identifying as a woman could play on their team (and use the same locker room), well, that’s not that far off from what the Charlotte Observer said in 2016 about the so-called “bathroom bill”:
Isn’t it so odd that the most passionate defenders of so-called transgender rights at the state and national levels are Democratic women and their allies in the mainstream press? I mean this is actual war on women stuff here, yet Democrat women are leading the fight to set all women back decades. It’s surreal.
When these people tell us who they really are, we should listen. And Marcus definitely told us who she is—who Democrats really are—this week.
— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —
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