Houghton University President Speaks Out Against 'Fringe Agenda' Allowing Males In Women's College Sports
The president of Houghton University is taking a stand for female athletes.
Dr. Wayne D. Lewis Jr. released a statement Monday calling for an end to male participation in female sports. Although Houghton is a Christian liberal arts college, Lewis said his stance is not a religious one. Rather, it's a moral position that it's simply wrong to allow males to take over girls' and women's sports.
"I reached the place where I could no longer remain silent on this issue," Lewis said. "When I see young women with Houghton written across their uniform… at a competitive disadvantage, sometimes losing opportunities that are hard-earned, there is no way that I, as their president, will continue to sit on the sidelines and refuse to advocate for change."
Lewis' statement comes after Sadie Schreiner — a trans-identifying male track and field athlete — won first place in the women's 200-meter event at the All-Atlantic Regional Championships on Saturday. With a time of 25.09, Schreiner would have come in last in the men's event.
In late January, Schreiner also set two new track-and-field records for the Rochester Institute of Technology.
"A fringe agenda under the guise of making school and collegiate athletics more inclusive for transgender people has grown to the place of now unfairly displacing gifted and hardworking female athletes, obliterating the historic achievements and records of female athletes of the past, and threatening to dismantle the opportunities and protections for girls and women in sport trailblazing leaders fought so hard to create and protect," Lewis said.
The Houghton Highlanders are a member of the NCAA's Division III, primarily competing in the Empire 8 Athletic Conference.
Houghton University President Stands Up For Women
Lewis argued most Americans know male participation in women's sports is wrong, but they're too afraid to say it out loud.
"Too many leaders, parents, professional athletes, and people of goodwill have been silent as female athletes are humiliated, silenced, and robbed of hard-earned opportunities," he said. "That silence is complicit with the fringe agenda that threatens to dismantle girls’ and women’s athletics."
(Houghton University)
Lewis clarified that everyone deserves to be treated with dignity and respect, but to ignore biological differences between men and women is to reject common sense.
"I struggle to understand how leaders with the best interest of girls and women at heart could advocate for or endorse practices that not only place female athletes at a competitive disadvantage, but also subject them to disrespect and embarrassment and place them at greater risk for harassment and assault," he said.
RELATED: Letitia James Takes A Break From Attacking Trump To Threaten Official Defending Women In Sports
Riley Gaines — former University of Kentucky swimmer and host of OutKick's Gaines for Girls podcast — praised Lewis for his courage and leadership.
"I was ecstatic to hear of a university president willing to publicly say what I'd bet 95% of society already agrees with," Gaines said. "It's telling that we've reached a point where we outwardly applaud our leaders for saying something so simple like ‘men and women are different, and each sex is deserving of equal opportunity, privacy and safety.’
"Nonetheless, it's a statement that comes with risks, so I commend President Lewis and his leadership."
NCAA President Charlie Baker insinuated there would be changes to the transgender policy in collegiate sports when he took over last year. But so far, it's all talk. And female athletes continue to suffer the consequences.