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USA Boxing now permits biological men who identify as women to compete against women. This change disregards the physical differences between men and women and puts female athletes in danger. 

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) sent a letter to USA Boxing Executive Director and CEO Mike McAtee urging him to reverse this dangerous “transgender policy.” 

• “Allowing men to hit women is reprehensible, even under the guise of athletic competition. It is behavior no civilized country would tolerate, much less encourage. Civilized countries enforce special prohibitions on violence against women because there are differences between men and women that make men more capable of violence.” 

The full text of the letter is below. 

Dear Mr. McAtee: 

Your organization recently codified a “transgender policy” in its 2024 national rule book. In essence, this policy allows biological men to fight biological women in an intense combat sport, provided the men undergo so-called “sex-reassignment surgery” and agree to a multi-year regimen of hormone monitoring. Your transgender policy denies the scientific reality of sex, endangers women, upends fairness in athletics, and diminishes womanhood by pretending it is only a matter of surgery and hormone levels. Moreover, your policy encourages athletes suffering from gender dysphoria to castrate themselves in order to compete. I write to urge you to reverse this dangerous decision.

Allowing men to hit women is reprehensible, even under the guise of athletic competition. It is behavior no civilized country would tolerate, much less encourage. Civilized countries enforce special prohibitions on violence against women because there are differences between men and women that make men more capable of violence. Men have more muscle mass, larger hearts and lung capacity, and denser and larger skeletal structures, among other advantages. These advantages allow men to overpower and endanger women past the point of fair competition. Hormone injections and monitoring cannot remove these innate, biological advantages. Even if they could, that would not change the fundamental principle that it is wrong for men to hit women. 

We have already seen what happens when men who identify as women are allowed to compete against biological women. For example, mixed-martial artist Fallon Fox, a man who claims to be a woman, knocked out three women in the ring. One of her opponents reportedly was hospitalized with a fractured eye socket and needed seven staples in her skull. Biological men have also competed unfairly against women in sports like powerlifting, swimming, and cycling, but it is especially egregious that they are allowed to compete against women in combat sports, where losing can mean serious blunt force trauma.

Other boxing organizations have validated these concerns, and many female boxers have come out in opposition to your policy, correctly noting that it is unfair and puts them in danger. Similarly, Mauricio Sulaimán, the president of the World Boxing Council, has previously said “a man fighting a woman must never be accepted regardless of gender change. There should be no grey area around this.”

Protecting women is adequate reason to oppose this dangerous “transgender policy.” This policy will also hurt boxers who believe they are transgender by requiring so-called “gender-reassignment surgery” (i.e. the surgical removal of genitals) in order to compete as their perceived sex. This requirement encourages athletes to undergo dangerous and irreversible surgery that sterilizes them for life.

Undoubtedly, your organization is under tremendous pressure from activists to promote transgenderism in the name of “inclusion,” but that is no excuse to disregard and endanger athletes. I urge you to recover your common sense, revoke your “transgender policy,” and explicitly prohibit boxers of the opposite sex from fighting in the ring.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter. I look forward to your prompt response.

Sincerely,