Governor Stitt and Fellow Governors Urge NCAA to Revise Transgender Student-Athlete Policy

TULSA, Okla. (KTUL) — Governor Kevin Stitt and eight other governors from around the United States have all signed a letter to the members of the NCAA.

That letter was about transgender athletes being able to play in women’s sports collegiately.

Newschannel 8 spoke with the Governor about that letter and how important this topic is for Oklahoma.

Biologically men being able to play in women’s sports, have rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.

Governor Kevin Stitt is strongly encouraging the NCAA to rewrite its transgender student-athlete policy immediately.

Nine state stamps of approval are at the top of the signed letter that was sent to the NCAA Board of Governors.

In that letter, were four pages about how transgender women should not be able to play in college sports.

One of those reasons, was because “biological men are generally taller, faster, stronger, and have more testosterone than biological women.”

“I believe that the NCAA needs to put this issue to bed once and for all and just say, you know, women we’re going to protect women’s sports and in Oklahoma of course, we want to make sure that that young ladies that are trying to get a scholarship you know, we just think that’s so important that we’re not gonna let a biological male steal their state championship or steal their individual titles and, and in robbed them of a place on a team,” said Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt.

The letter went on to talk about misguided guidelines and women who have worked their entire lives to be at the top of their sport.

And then Riley Gains who has over ten times in the NCAA, loses by a hundredth of a second to a transgender athlete named Lia Thomas.

“Lia Thomas competed on the men’s team for three years and was ranked I think somewhere around 450th in the country in those sports in those events that he competed on on the men’s side. Switched to the women’s side and was number one at multiple different disciplines,” said Governor Stitt.

Stitt says that transgender athletes went from 450th on the men’s side to shattering records on the women’s side.

The NCAA’s latest update on the transgender student-athlete policy was back in April.

Stitt says he just wants women to play on an even playing field.

“We’re not trying to hurt anybody’s feelings, but this is going a step too far and it doesn’t matter, says Governor Stitt. This isn’t a political issue. This is not a Republican or democrat issue. This is just a fairness issue.”

NewsChannel 8reached out to the NCAA for comment about its transgender student-athlete policy and has not heard back yet.