You may have noticed a recent uproar in mainstream media regarding transgender policies. In a recent statement from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the seven scheduled championships in North Carolina will be relocated due to their “commitment to fairness and inclusion.” (1) The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is moving their championship game to an unspecified location, and even the NBA publically announced in July that their 2017 All-Star game would not be held in North Carolina. (2) According to Mark Abadi from the Business Insider, ”North Carolina’s “bathroom law” has already cost the state nearly $400 million.” (3)
What’s with the uproar? Well, North Carolina passed a law mandating transgender people use the restroom that corresponds with the biological sex found on their birth certificate. The law also indicates that local governments can’t protect LGBT people using nondiscrimination ordinances. Is this really providing equality?
What is equality really? Most people would agree it is two different things receiving equal treatment. But when we see it in this way, we see that without difference there can be no equality.
Alice von Hildebrand says, “The fullness of human nature is to be found in man and woman.” (4) Separating sex from gender fundamentally disregards the truth behind man and woman. Our culture often misunderstands equality, diversity, and sexual difference. If you disregard two sexes, then you’re denying the opportunity for differences to be linked with equality. The giving and receiving between male and female is simply the way we were created. Sexual difference is in fact the perfect equality.
“That God has created two creatures of equal dignity with different genders is truly divinely inspired.” (5)
The NCAA and ACC are contradicting the structure of their own organizations, which have separate men’s and women’s sports teams. If gender and sex aren’t connected, then what stops a biological male from joining a women’s team? What makes a women’s sports team a women’s sports team? If we treat sexual differences as an issue of diversity, it seems that a time may come when we don’t have single sex sports teams anymore.
So where does our truth lie? On one hand it’s extremely easy to sympathize with associations such as the NCAA and ACC because our hearts desire justice. But upon further investigation, it becomes clear that their argument is a misunderstanding of humanity. How can the NCAA have distinct men and women’s teams if they separate gender from sex? Alice von Hildebrand reminds us that the fullness of nature is in both man and woman, which indicates that in order for man and woman to be equal they must be different. Sexual difference, when truly understood, is the basis of true equality between human beings...
(1) http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/media-center/news/ncaa-relocate-championships-north-carolina-2016-17
(2) http://www.smobserved.com/story/2016/09/20/sports/ncaa-boycotts-north-carolina-to-protest-states-transgender-bathroom-laws/1980.html
(4) Alice von Hildebrand, Man and Woman: A Divine Invention, 1.
(5) Alice von Hildebrand, Man and Woman: A Divine Invention, 3.
2 comments
The NCAA caps the benefits that collegiate athletes can receive from their schools. There is a consensus among economists that these caps for men’s basketball and football players benefit the athletes' schools (through rent-seeking) at the expense of the athletes :)
ReplyDeleteEquality refers to fairness, and in particular to universal access (to employment or health care, for instance), whereas diversity is about recognizing and embracing differences within an institution, workforce or society.
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