LANSING, Mich. — Sen. Joseph Bellino held a press conference Thursday with Senate and House Republican colleagues to call on the Michigan High School Athletic Association to reconsider its decision to keep allowing biological males to compete in girls’ sports despite President Donald Trump’s “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” executive order.
“Fair competition is vitally important to protecting opportunities for girls and ensuring a level playing field,” wrote Bellino, R-Monroe, in his letter to MHSAA Executive Director Mark Uyl. “As a father to three daughters and a grandfather to six grandchildren, this issue is personal for me. I know how important it is to provide safe environments for our children and for parents to have a say in these decisions.
“Every girl deserves a fair opportunity to compete, and every parent deserves to know their kids are being protected.”
On Feb. 5, Trump issued an executive order designed to “protect opportunities for women and girls to compete in safe and fair sports” and said that allowing “men to compete in women’s sports” is “demeaning, unfair, and dangerous to women and girls, and denies women and girls the equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports.”
The order directs the federal government to “rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy.”
Bellino said that while this is mostly about fairness, failure to protect girls’ sports could be a violation of Title IX and jeopardize federal support.
“By allowing biological men to participate in girls’ sports, MHSAA is putting schools at risk of losing federal funding that supports essential extracurricular activities and programs for all students,” Bellino said. “We stand with our female student-athletes, and we hope the MHSAA will do the same.”
A copy of Bellino’s letter was also sent to President Trump.
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Editor’s note: A video of the press conference will be available later at SenatorJosephBellino.com/video/.