Josh Shapiro, Potential Democrat VP Nominee, Supports Males In Women's Sports

A controversy at the Olympics surrounding two boxers who allegedly have XY chromosomes and are competing in the women's category has reignited the debate about who should compete in women's sports. 

The answer is fairly obvious to most people: women. But not all people feel that way. 

One of those people is Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, who is the favorite to be the Democratic vice presidential nominee on the ticket with presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. 

Shapiro governs Pennsylvania, the state in which the University of Pennsylvania is located. Obviously. 

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a potential Democratic vice presidential nominee, has stated that he supports males in women's sports.

(Greg Wohlford/Erie Times-News/USA Today Network)

That's important because Penn is the school that allowed Lia Thomas, a biological male born William Thomas, to compete on the women's swimming team. 

Thomas won an NCAA Championship in the women's division and set several records. 

Paula Scanlan, a teammate of Thomas' at Penn, is an outspoken critic of non-women competing in women's sports. 

On Thursday, she resurfaced posts from Shapiro that explicitly stated his opinion on allowing transgender athletes to compete in girls' and women's sports. 

Spoiler alert: he's all for it. He fully supports the idea that any person who calls themselves a woman is, therefore, a woman. 

Here's the first tweet, from 2020, recirculating on social media. 

So, if "trans women are women" as Shapiro believes, then it's only natural that he believes they should compete in women's sports. 

But we don't have to assume he believes that; he's openly said it. Proudly, too. 

The bill that he labeled as "discriminatory" is called the "Fairness In Women's Sports Act." Several states have passed similar laws to prevent males from competing in women's sports and sharing bathrooms and locker rooms with females. 

However, thanks to Shapiro, Pennsylvania is not one of those states. 

Scanlan re-posted this 2021 tweet and wrote, "REMINDER: Josh Shapiro thinks it’s 'discriminatory' to exclude men from women’s sports. Under his leadership as AG of Pennsylvania a man was allowed on my women’s swim team." 

Prior to being elected governor of Pennsylvania, Shapiro served as the state's Attorney General from 2017-23. It was during this time that Lia Thomas transitioned and, after spending three years on the men's swimming team at Penn, began swimming on the women's team. 

Shapiro, then, is likely completely on board with the Biden-Harris administration when it comes to the re-write of Title IX – that went into effect Thursday in many states, including Pennsylvania – which allows gender identity to replace biological sex when it comes to higher education. 

The Democrats, the party that prides itself on being all about "the science," is likely to have a presidential nominee and vice presidential nominee willing to ignore "the science" in favor of inclusivity.  

Seems hypocritical, but what do I know?