In December of 2024, for the second year in a row, a male Irish dancer who identifies as a transgender girl has won the title of Southern Regional Champion, beating out nearly 100 girls and indirectly depriving a young woman of the opportunity to compete at the World Championships.
As an internationally competitive Irish dancer, I have been appalled at the introduction of men into women’s sports across the globe in the last several years, and specifically, at the effects of this practice upon my own sport. Despite recent victories such as the defeat in federal court of the Biden-Harris administration’s attempt to legally expand the definition of sex in Title IX to include the nebulous concept of “gender identity,” which would have punished states for barring biological males from women’s sports, many female athletes are still forced to yield their spaces to boys and men.
In…
