USA Today backs male athletes playing in women’s sports, calls ESPN contributor a ‘bigot’ for demanding fairness in competition

Gaines tied with Lia Thomas, a biological male who identifies as a woman, in the 2022 NCAA Championship. Thomas won a national title the night before the tie performance.

Gaines tweeted the messages she received about transgender high school runners participating in the girls’ division in California. The runners had notably backed out after backlash.

Ponder tweeted, "I barely said anything publicly abt this issue & I’ve had so many ppl msg me, stop me in the street to say thank you+ tell me stories abt girls who are afraid to speak up for fear of lost employment/being called hateful. It is not hateful to demand fairness in sports for girls."

In her column, Armour called Ponder’s comment "plain old bigotry", writing, "Don’t be fooled by the people who screech about ‘fairness’ to cloak their bigotry toward transgender girls and women, the transgender girls and women who have the audacity to want to play sports, in particular.”

She added, "This is, and always was, about hate, fear and ignorance."

Armour continued, "Did Ponder use her platform to express outrage at any of this? Urge her nearly half-million followers on Twitter to write or call their representatives and ask that women be given the funding and opportunities they rightfully deserve? Did she publicly participate in any of the many excellent documentaries, videos and commentary ESPN did to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Title IX last year? Or even Tweet about them?"

"No, she did not. Her public concern about ‘fairness’ for female athletes starts and stops with the minuscule number of transgender women who are participating in sports."

Armour also claimed Ponder put transgender people at further risk with her tweets "by further amplifying the bogeyman that cisgender women’s participation in sports is being threatened by transgender girls and young women," and concluded that Ponder’s opinions have nothing to do with "fairness."

A Washington Post-KFF poll released earlier this month showed the majority of American adults believe gender is determined at birth and are against biological males competing in women’s sports. Most people do not believe men are women simply because those men say so.