Steve Garvey calls for prevention of trans inclusion in women's sports, defends forfeits that protest it
Former Dodgers World Series champion Steve Garvey said he opposes transgender athletes in women's sports and is calling on national leadership to set clear definitions.
EXCLUSIVE: Former Dodgers World Series champion Steve Garvey is running for U.S. Senate as a Republican in California, and revealed his stance on one of November's sudden hot button issues to Fox News Digital ahead of L.A.'s title bout vs. the Yankees.
Garvey made it clear that he opposed trans inclusion in women's sports, and insists biological boundaries should be set to define biological gender. He also specified that he believes transgender athletes should only compete against each other.
"This is an issue I've talked to a lot of people. I just believe it's defined by biological men and women, and I think that God gives us freewill and choice, and if you choose to transgender, say from male and female, then you should compete against those people that have done the same thing," Garvey said.
Garvey cited his experience as a father to his two daughters, Krisha and Whitney, for his stance.
"I have daughters, I care about their safety, I care about their freedom, and I think it's just not fair to have that kind of competition, that a woman is always going to be at a deficit," Garvey said.
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Former President Trump has gone so far as to advocate for a ban, while Democrats, including Vice President Harris and Ted Cruz's Texas seat opponent Collin Allred, have distanced themselves from support for transgender athletes in women's sports over the last month.
Harris has sidestepped questions of transgender rights in recent interviews on Fox News and NBC News, while Allred's campaign has had to go so far as to release TV ads where he says he is against "boys in girls sports."
Garvey believes that the nation's leadership must take action to define the distinction between biological men and women.
"I think it gets back to leadership, we need to really define this even further," Garvey said.
In Garvey's state of California, San Jose State University has been at the epicenter of the heated election-month debate.
On Friday, the university's volleyball program received news that an opponent would be forfeiting for fifth time this season alone, as the program is embroiled in a national controversy over a lawsuit by one of its players against the NCAA, alleging that she was never told that her teammate is a biological male.
Brooke Slusser joined a lawsuit headed by OutKick host and former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines against the NCAA due to its policies on gender identity. Slusser joined this lawsuit because she claims that she has had to share a court, a locker room and even a room on overnight trips with her teammate Blaire Fleming without having ever been told that Fleming was transgender.
The University of Nevada, Reno announced it would be officially forfeiting its Saturday match against San Jose State after a tense dispute between the Nevada players and their athletic department. The players voted to forfeit the game, and made it public that they intended not to take the court against San Jose State. Sources told Fox News Digital that the players even approached the athletic director Stephanie Rempe to request the match be forfeited.
But Nevada didn't officially forfeit the program until Saturday when they deemed that they didn't have enough players to participate in the match, after a very visible protest by the players over the last week.
Garvey defended athletes and all the other volleyball programs that have forfeited games over their refusal to compete against a transgender opponent.
"I hate to see women lose the opportunity to compete, but what they're doing – and this has become part of their freewill and choice – is to choose how they're going to make a statement," Garvey said.
San Jose State has said it is in compliance with official NCAA rules amid the news of the fifth forfeit of the year.
"Our athletes all comply with NCAA and Mountain West Conference policies and they are eligible to play under the rules of those organizations. We will continue to take measures to prioritize the health and safety of our students while they pursue their earned opportunities to compete," the university said in a statement to Fox News Digital on Friday.
San Jose State's Slusser and Nevada's Sia Liillii have taken leadership roles in vocalizing their opposition to transgender inclusion in women's sports over the last few weeks.
Republican lawmakers, Idaho Gov. Brad Little and Tulsi Gabbard have praised the players and teams who have refused to play the Spartans. The Trump campaign has pounded his Democrat opponent on the issue in the final weeks leading up to election day.
Former NCAA swimmer and OutKick contributor Riley Gaines took stage at the Turning Point Action conference to precede Trump at the rally in Georgia on Wednesday.
"I could share the grotesque details of what it was like being forced to undress, inches away from a six-foot-four man who watched us strip down to nothing, while he did the same, exposing his fully-intact naked male body," Gaines said. "There are no words to describe the violation and the betrayal, the humiliation that we felt."
The Biden-Harris administration issued a sweeping rule that clarified that Title IX’s ban on "sex" discrimination in schools covers discrimination based on gender identity, sexual orientation and "pregnancy or related conditions" in April.
The administration insisted the regulation does not address athletic eligibility. However, multiple experts presented evidence to Fox News Digital in June that it would ultimately put more biological men in women's sports.
The Supreme Court then voted 5-4 in August to reject an emergency request by the Biden administration to enforce portions of that new rule after more than two dozen Republican attorneys general sued to block the Title IX changes in their own states.
However, the issue extends far beyond the borders of the U.S.
The United Nations released study findings that say nearly 900 biological females have fallen short of the podium because they have been beaten out by transgender athletes.
The study, titled "Violence against women and girls in sports," said that more than 600 athletes did not medal in more than 400 competitions in 29 different sports, totaling over 890 medals, according to information obtained up to March 30.
"The replacement of the female sports category with a mixed-sex category has resulted in an increasing number of female athletes losing opportunities, including medals, when competing against males," the report said.
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