(Headline USA) A New Jersey Democrat running for the U.S. House said this week that she was “not worried” about biological men competing on women’s sports teams or undressing in women’s locker rooms.
Sue Altman, a former leader of the progressive Working Families Party, is running to defeat Republican incumbent Rep. Tom Kean in New Jersey’s 7th congressional district. The race is currently ranked as a toss-up.
Altman, a former professional basketball player, was asked whether she worried about the Biden administration’s radical rewrite of Title IX, the legal statute that provided equal opportunity for female athletes.
Altman admitted she would back “our trans brothers and sisters” over the female athletes she grew up competing against.
“If we decide as a society that making rules about who is and who isn’t female is more important than giving young children a chance to be on teams and compete and to be part of something bigger than themselves, especially young people who are more susceptible to suicide and bullying, then I think we’ve lost our way a little bit,” Altman said, according to the New York Post.
Altman went on to suggest that few female athletes were actually concerned with having to compete against men who identified as women.
“I promise you that in the locker rooms of women’s sports teams, we’re not super worried about this,” she said. “We’ve been worried about getting equal access to gym time, good referees, good trainers so you don’t get injured, fair shake at scholarships, equal pay at the higher levels.”
The Democrat added that, if elected, she would defer to “individual sport committees” to “decide the highest, highest level things.”
However, she noted she would continue to advocate for “young people and adolescents struggling with their gender identity” to be given “the chance to compete”—even if female athletes were forced to compete at a disadvantage as a result.
