Jamie Walker: Enact the Save Women’s Sports Act 

In 2023, I cofounded a political action committee called Protect Bucks. When we started the PAC, I could not believe the erosion of girls’ rights taking place in modern society.  Our goal was to elect political candidates who would protect girls’ sports.  We didn’t want biological males to be able to play on young women’s sports teams, taking coveted spots and valuable scholarships away from actual female athletes.   

Unfortunately, we didn’t have the financial support or bandwidth to widely spread the message.  Males now sadly defeat girls in high school athletic competitions across the country, and for some reason – despite overwhelming public disapproval – the Democratic Party battles hard to keep it that way. The party showily claims to protect women’s rights despite trying to decimate womanhood. 

Girls that live in states and school districts run by Democrats bear the brunt of this harmful policy. In 2023, for example, when the Central Bucks School Board flipped from Republican to Democratic, school directors immediately repealed a policy to protect female sports. One board member said it wasn’t an issue locally, so why create a policy addressing it? I guess she doesn’t read the same news as I do because it’s an issue all over the country.  

Female athletes in Bucks and Montgomery County have already been negatively impacted by this horrible policy.  Recently, a high-school girl in Quakertown lost a race to a biological male from Montgomery County. It’s very sad for young girls that Democrats are so blinded by their hatred for President Trump and determined to defy his executive order protecting girls’ sports that they do such damage to these important programs. The fact that this is happening to girls despite presidential action proves that local elections matter at least as much as federal ones do.  

Pennsylvania’s Republican lawmakers are doing their part to correct this outrage. Last month, by a vote of 32-18, the state Senate passed the Save Women’s Sports Act, co-sponsored by Senators Frank Farry (R-Langhorne) and Tracy Pennycuick (R-Red Hill). This commonsense measure is intended to keep girls’ school sports safe, fair, and entirely female. Most state senators including my own, Steve Santarsiero (D-Doylestown), voted against protecting girls. In fact, Santarsiero has stated several times he supports House Bill 300, the misnamed “Fairness Act,” which would permit male-born athletes to compete in sports against girls. It’s hard to understand this stubborn opposition to the interests of young women.  

Democrats have a one-vote majority in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. Democrats therefore can decide whether or not to vote on The Save Women’s Sports Act and send it to Governor Josh Shapiro to become a law. Considering that most of Shapiro’s fellow Democrats voted against this commonsense bill in the Senate, and that House leaders have tremendous power to set the agenda, it’s unlikely to happen even if some Democrats join Republicans to support female athletes.  

I am hoping state Representative Brian Munroe (D-Warminster) will do just that. A few months ago on Facebook, Representative Munroe stated he would not vote to allow males to compete in girls’ sports, likely being the deciding vote on the issue. I hope he speaks up for girls and gets the Pennsylvania House of Representatives to take up the Senate bill. He could be the key factor in making a positive change in student athletes’ lives all over the Keystone State.  

But I don’t want to speak too soon; he has voted for the so-called Fairness Act in the past. This session, he should show some backbone and stand up to his Democratic colleagues who continue to hurt female athletes.

Jamie Walker is a former teacher and a Central Bucks School District mom of three.