Payton McNabb, a high school senior from Murphy, played volleyball on her school teams since sixth grade. Those days are gone now because of an injury she received in September. A biological boy, calling himself a trans-female, spiked the ball and hit her in the face. This caused her to lose physical and mental capacities. She suffered a concussion and continues to battle lingering neck injuries, impaired vision, constant headaches, partial paralysis on her right side, depression, and anxiety. Her school made special accommodations for her since she still struggles to understand and remember information.

From this painful experience, she now speaks out to protect women’s sports. At a recent press conference she stated, “Due to the NC High School Athletic Association policy of allowing biological males to compete against biological females my life has forever been changed.” Unfortunately, she’s not the only one and likely won’t be the last.

How did this happen? Since when did boys compete on girls’ teams? After fighting for decades, didn’t the passage of Title IX in 1972 ensure equal rights for women in sports? Yes, but everything changed when Biden’s Department of Education recently reinterpreted the law to include trans-women. Thanks to the Democrats, women’s sports are now endangered.

This is another example of Democrats twisting the law to change its original intent. The Left uses it to cite discrimination against boys who decide they are girls and want to play with the females. Even better, the boys now get to share the girls’ locker room. Have no worries as they parade around naked in all their glory in front of their teammates. Don’t be concerned that this might affect the real females. Only the woke get to be offended.

To continue this insanity will obliterate women’s athletics. There is nothing equal, fair, or safe about such a foolish interpretation of Title Nine. When men invade women’s sports, the playing field is no longer level. It leads to women being deprived of college scholarships or making Olympic teams. It nullifies years of disciplined hard work. To put it bluntly, it is flat-out wrong.

The good news is that the N.C. Legislature addressed this issue by passing the “Fairness in Women’s Sports” bill. It requires all students to play on teams based on their biological sex at birth. Trans-females will no longer be allowed to compete on a girls’ team. All Republicans voted in favor of this bill. Only three Democrats did.

Following this, the U.S. House barely passed a similar bill with all Democrats voting against it. The next week, Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, former football coach of Auburn University, presented the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act.” He stressed the need to preserve Title IX protections. He supported his proposal with scientific data showing the danger women face when playing against men. “Males have 40 to 50 percent greater upper body strength and 20 to 40 percent more lower body strength. It’s dangerous to put them on the same field as women. This is just basic biology.”

The vote was taken and went down in defeat, lacking passage by the vote of one Democrat. So much for the protection of women’s sports.

Where are the feminists when you need them? Why isn’t Gloria Allred leading the parade to stop this assault on women? Are we going to stand on the sidelines and allow our daughters to be treated so unfairly? Do we just twiddle our thumbs while females are exposed to potential bodily injury from boys who have no business competing against them? Why allow our girls to be robbed of “the thrill of victory” because they were forced to play against bigger, stronger men?

It’s ridiculous that this has become a political matter. This should not be a Republican vs. Democrat issue. It is an issue of safety, fairness, and good old-fashioned common sense, which isn’t so common in these woke days..

Here’s a call for sensible people, regardless of political party, to unite and stop this takeover by men. Don’t allow boys who suffer from gender dysphoria and need mental help to steal a young woman’s spot. We cannot permit the new Crazies to let women’s athletic accomplishments go down in smoke. Let the young ladies have their chance without infringement from larger, mightier men. What if your daughter were injured as was Miss McNabb? or lost her spot to a boy? I’m willing to bet you’d speak out then.

Renee Scheidt lives in Salisbury.