By: Hadassa Kalatizadeh

A Republican candidate is launching a campaign to ban athletes born as males from competing against females in athletics. As reported by the NY Post, Gina Arena is running for state senate in New York’s 40th District encompassing the lower Hudson Valley. She is pushing back against the proposed “Equal Rights” amendment, which will appear on the November ballot, and which she says would allow transgender athletes to compete against females. “New York state has shamefully become the national leader in discriminating against women and girls in sports, and that’s intolerable,” Arena said in a statement. “Sixty-six percent of New Yorkers recently surveyed said they want girls sports left alone, but radical progressives, like my opponent State Senator Pete Harkham, think they know better than the rest of us.”

Arena, a mother of eight with six daughters, will be facing off in a rematch against Democratic incumbent Sen. Peter Harkham. Two years ago in the previous race, Arena had obtained 47 percent of the vote against Harkham, in a close matchup for the district which includes Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties. Arena’s other priorities include focusing on the economy, cutting taxes, eliminating regulations that drive up costs, improving schools and supporting families. She stands against transgender males competing in women’s sport, whereas Harckham voted in the Senate in favor of the proposed amendment.

Come November, the ballot will include Proposition 1— asking voters if they support or oppose adding language to the constitution stating that people cannot be denied rights based on their “race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, creed, religion, or sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, reproductive healthcare and autonomy.” Voting “YES” to this proposition would add these protections against discrimination in the NYS Constitution, and thereby also allow trans men to compete in women’s sports. Voting “NO” would leave the constitution as it is. This proposition is most famously known as a bid to protect abortion rights. Many are unaware that the same proposition would also give trans athletes the right to compete against biological females.

Per the Post, Arena’s new campaign entitled “Save Girls and Women Sports” is gaining speed among other GOP hopefuls too. “Many Republican candidates will voice their opposition to [the proposal]. The amendment also undermines parents’ rights,” said Former Republican Congressman John Faso, an adviser to state GOP Chairman Ed Cox. The Coalition to Protect Kids-NY is also on board to oppose the proposed amendment. On Monday, which was National Women’s Equality Day, it held multi-press conferences at New York City Hall Park, in Binghamton, eastern Elmhurst in Queens and Rochester to “oppose discrimination against girls in sports”.

Spokespersons for Harkham spoke out against Arena’s campaign, saying: “This is a bizarre and dishonest interpretation of the New York State Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), but not surprising given Gina Arena’s Moms for Liberty roots. The ERA is just that, guaranteeing equal protections under the law to all New Yorkers. There is nothing in the ERA that would dictate this. Gina’s scapegoating of a small number of transgender kids is hateful and unacceptable.”

Also, the pro-ERA group New Yorkers for Equal Rights insisted the referendum does not explicitly refer to transgender participation in female sports. “New Yorkers will see through these blatant lies, and we will win in November.