Despite Gov. Janet Mills’ promise to protect it, Maine’s policy allowing biological males who identify as female to participate in women’s sports is a mistake.

The policy fails to make two critical distinctions. The first is between gender identity based on emotion and psychology and sex based on incontrovertible reproductive and other physical characteristics. The second distinction is between circumstances in which gender identity matters and in which it doesn’t.

In most social, professional and educational settings, gender identity doesn’t matter because it doesn’t affect outcomes and no one is at a disadvantage. Athletic competition is different because outcomes depend on the development and refinement of physical skills, which in turn are affected by sex. Beyond puberty and the accompanying increase in testosterone levels, biological males have advantages — more muscle mass, longer limbs, greater lung capacity — that are very difficult for females to overcome and that make fairness in athletic competition impossible. Sentiments of compassion, empathy and well-meaning intentions can’t make these differences disappear.

The solution to this dilemma, as a growing number of states have recognized, is to welcome the participation of transgender individuals in almost all public activities, but to recognize biological reality and insist that in athletic competition everyone participate on teams according to their biological sex.

Martin Jones
Freeport