Rantz: Washington superintendent Chris Reykdal declares war on female athletes

Feb 10, 2025, 7:17 AM

Headshot of WA Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal superimposed over a photo of a Washington high school girl's flag football team huddling up. (Photos courtesy of the Office of the Superintendent, Seattle Public Schools)

(Photos courtesy of the Office of the Superintendent, Seattle Public Schools)

BY JASON RANTZ

Talk Show Host and Columnist at Seattle Red AM 770

Chris Reykdal, Washington’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, is on a mission — not to improve education, not to raise test scores and certainly not to ensure fairness in girls’ sports. Instead, he’s going to war against female athletes by backing trans athletes at their expense.

The superintendent is challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order banning biological males from competing in women’s sports. Reykdal’s goal appears to overturn a common-sense policy designed to protect the very student-athletes he’s supposed to advocate for.

Reykdal, never one to shy away from performative progressive outrage, slammed Trump’s order, calling it “patently discriminatory and unconstitutional.” He vowed Washington would “not back down” from its current policy allowing transgender athletes to compete based on gender identity rather than biological sex. In his view, this is a matter of “equity.” But what about fairness? What about women and girls who have spent their entire lives training, only to be forced into unfair and unsafe competition against biological males with undeniable physical advantages?

Democrats like Reykdal use trans athletes to attack women’s rights

The battle around trans athletes was one started by a small group of activists on the Left. They forced the country to accept their radical position, despite firm and overwhelming opposition. And while they present the issue as about equity, it’s always been about their own narcissism; to be seen as heroes fighting for the marginalized.

This issue isn’t about hating transgender athletes. No one is calling for their exclusion from sports. But compassion for one group cannot mean we strip another of its rights. Female athletes fought for generations to have equal opportunities in sports. Title IX was a landmark victory, ensuring girls and women had access to fair and competitive athletics. That’s what makes this so infuriating — Reykdal and his ideological allies are actively dismantling those hard-fought protections in the name of “inclusion.”

But “inclusion” isn’t the same as fairness.

This isn’t even controversial

When biological males enter female sports, they bring undeniable advantages: greater muscle mass, bone density, lung capacity and testosterone-driven strength. Studies have confirmed these biological realities, yet activists pretend they don’t exist.

We’ve already seen the consequences in real life — female athletes losing records, championships, and even opportunities to stand on the podium because they were forced to compete against biological males. And yet, Reykdal insists that there is no legitimate policy argument against trans athletes competing in women’s sports. Instead, he said Trump’s executive order is “an attack on the specific student groups that anti-discrimination laws aim to protect.” Really? Ask the teenage girl who trains every day only to watch a biological male dominate her event. Ask the college swimmer who lost an NCAA title to a competitor who went through male puberty. Ask the young women forced to share locker rooms with biological males because activists like Reykdal refuse to acknowledge reality.

The Democrats’ version of an anti-discrimination law discriminates against women.

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Trump’s trans athletes ban is unlawful? What about the Biden precedent?

Reykdal claims Trump’s executive order is “unlawful,” but that argument doesn’t hold up.

There is no constitutional right to compete in a sports league of your choosing. However, there is a constitutional right to equal protection under the law — and when states allow biological males into women’s sports, they are effectively discriminating against biological females.

If Washington State (or any other state) wants to defy federal law, that’s their prerogative. But here’s the catch: they don’t get to keep federal funding while doing it. The Biden administration weaponized federal dollars to force progressive policies on states, from pushing critical race theory in classrooms to making school lunch programs dependent on compliance with radical gender ideology. Why should the same logic not apply here? If a state refuses to protect female athletes, it shouldn’t expect the federal government to bankroll its discrimination.

Using kids as props

Reykdal’s posturing doesn’t just harm female athletes; it’s also deeply unfair to trans athletes.

By refusing to acknowledge biological realities, he’s setting up trans athletes for failure and pitting them against women in a way that creates resentment and backlash. Polls on this topic make that abundantly clear. There are solutions that could allow trans athletes to compete without dismantling women’s sports. Some states have considered separate divisions, and others have proposed open categories. But progressives like Reykdal won’t even entertain these ideas because they’re too focused on ideological purity, even if it harms young women.

This fight is about fairness. It’s about protecting opportunities for female athletes while still showing respect and compassion for transgender individuals. What it shouldn’t be about is one man’s crusade to impose his extreme ideology at the expense of the very students he was elected to serve. He and others on the far Left would understand that if they weren’t too busy using students who identify as transgender as political props.

Reykdal said he won’t back down. Well, neither should the girls fighting for their right to fair competition.

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