VICTOR JOECKS: Nevada Democrats refuse to help female athletes
Nevada Republicans want to protect female athletes. Nevada Democrats aren’t interested.
Kendall Lewis plays on a high school girls’ volleyball team in Reno. Over the past three years, “I’ve had to play against a biological male multiple times,” Lewis, a junior, told me. She said, “There is a huge difference between males and females.” Male players “are stronger and can hit a lot faster.”
Allowing boys to compete in girls’ sports creates an uneven playing field. Listen to Lewis describe competing against a male opponent.
“Our fear is more about physical safety more than anything because we don’t know what this biological male can do to us,” she said.
The net is lower in girls’ volleyball. Males can jump higher too. This allows a male player to “get ahold of the ball and slam it down straight into our heads,” she said.
That isn’t idle speculation. At President Donald Trump’s recent speech to Congress, he introduced Payton McNabb. She was a high school volleyball player with dreams of playing sports in college. But in 2022, she played against a team with a male pretending to be a female. He spiked a ball so hard into her face that she was left partially paralyzed.
Lt. Gov. Stavros Anthony has done a terrific job driving this issue. Lewis spoke last week at a Protect Women’s Sports event that Anthony put on. Gov. Joe Lombardo provided a statement of support for that rally, saying, “Women should participate in women’s sports.” Conservatives should continue to urge Lombardo to push this issue.
Lewis isn’t the only female Nevada volleyball player courageously fighting to keep men out of women’s sports. You may remember Sia Liilii. She was a leader on the University of Nevada Reno volleyball team that refused to play against a male opponent. On Wednesday, she received the Courage Wins Award from XX-XY Athletics.
It doesn’t have to be like this. Nevada Republicans have proposed two bills to protect female sports, Assembly Bill 240 and Senate Bill 112. An athletic team that is designated for females “must not be open to students of the male sex,” AB240 reads. It’s that simple.
Yet, as of this writing, the Democrats who control both legislative houses haven’t scheduled either bill for a hearing. It isn’t hard to figure out why. Democrats, both in Nevada and nationally, support males competing in women’s sports. They even want to put male rapists in women’s prisons.
On Friday, the Senate Commerce and Labor Committee will hear Senate Bill 171. Sponsored by Sen. James Ohrenschall, D-Las Vegas, it “enacts a shield law to protect the transgender community.” It would protect people who castrate children and remove their sex organs in the name of transgender insanity. Even those who believe an adult should be able to mutilate himself should oppose performing this barbarism on children.
Republicans want to protect girls’ sports. Democrats want to protect doctors who remove breasts from healthy girls.
Victor Joecks’ column appears in the Opinion section each Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Listen to him discuss his columns each Monday at noon with Kevin Wall on AM 670 KMZQ Right Talk. Contact him at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on X.
