A week after the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that upheld state laws banning men from women’s sports, the latest Irish Dance competition just proved that those very laws work. A boy who was registered to compete as a girl did not show up, thanks in part to Florida’s law protecting female athletes.
As Concerned Women for America (CWA) has reported, a female-identifying male dancer was slated to dance at this week’s North American Irish Dance National Championship (NAIDC) in Orlando, Florida. That boy has previously won the girls’ regional title in his age group three years in a row, stealing qualifying spots and medals from biological females. He also competed at the World Championships this past March, in a spot that should have gone to a girl.
Ahead of this year’s World Championships, held in Chicago, CWA sent letters to the Irish Dance governing bodies, the Irish Dancing Commission (CLRG) and the Irish Dance Teachers Association of North America (IDTANA), urging them to change their policy that allows dancers to compete according to their gender identity, rather than their biological sex. They refused to do so before that competition, and the boy in question won a medal that should have gone to a girl.
With this year’s NAIDC being hosted in Florida, CWA reached out to Florida Congressmen Greg Steube (R-Florida 17th) and Randy Fine (R-Florida 6th), who also sent letters, claiming that if a boy competed as a girl, the competition would be in violation of Florida state law.
The pressure campaign escalated when Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier sent a letter of his own to the governing bodies, warning them that they were at risk of violating multiple state laws. The first is the Florida Civil Rights Act, which established that women are entitled to “full and equal enjoyment of the goods, services, facilities, privileges, advantages, and accommodations of any place of public accommodation without discrimination … on the ground … of sex.” Because the NAIDC was to be held at a hotel and convention center, a qualifying public accommodation, they could not discriminate against women by forcing them to compete against men.
The second law cited by Uthmeier was Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Protections Act, which protects against unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive conduct. The letter noted that because the NAIDC was advertised as hosting women’s competitions when in fact biological men could participate, the advertised sex-separated men’s and women’s competitions were deceptive and ran afoul of state law.
The Attorney General gave CLRG and IDTANA a deadline of June 30 to respond. They chose not to respond. Instead, they told teachers and competitors that the event would proceed as scheduled, that they were not, in fact, breaking Florida state law. Despite that insistence, the boy at the center of this controversy chose to withdraw from the competition. It’s unclear whether that was from the media attention or from the urging of the event organizers. However, because of the threat of legal action, the girls in the U17 category did not have to compete against a boy for the first time in several years.
Fairness will not be fully restored to Irish Dance until CLRG and IDTANA change their policy and prevent dancers from competing in any category other than the one that corresponds to their true sex. However, this is still a win for the girls who have worked so hard to be given a fair chance to compete. The state law worked in this instance, and women are much better for it. And, since 26 other states have similar laws on the books, the CLRG and the IDTANA will have to work hard to find a location that allows them to subjugate girls to this injustice. That is exactly why the remaining 23 states need to pass laws protecting women’s sports.
Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has unanimously upheld the right of states to protect their female athletes, every state must do so. Gender ideology has invaded every sport, including Irish Dance, and one of the strongest ways to push back against it is via the legal power of the states. The fight will continue until all girls’ sports truly are for girls only.
