NASHVILLE - Tennessee Rep. Robin Smith, R-Hixson, said Tuesday that New Zealand sports officials have set a "horrible precedent" by approving a transgender woman's participation on the country's weightlifting roster for the upcoming Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Smith's comments came during a Tuesday appearance on "Fox & Friends," following New Zealand's decision on Monday to approve weightlifter Laurel Hubbard as the first transgender athlete to compete in the Olympics.
A registered nurse by training, Smith said, "I'm old enough to remember the days of the German Democratic Republic when women that were doped up to be just like men were setting records that are still in place today. And we're seeing the reverse happen, that women are not going to be able to achieve all that they could and own their own records."
The lawmaker this year was a cosponsor of a bill, later signed into law by Republican Gov. Bill Lee, which requires transgender students to participate in high school sports based on their sex at birth. The primary sponsor of House Bill 3 was Rep. Scott Cepicky, R-Culleoka. It had 43 cosponsors among the 73-member House Republican Caucus, including Smith.
During Tuesday's televised segment, co-host Todd Piro noted that among those raising concerns was weightlifter Anna Van Bellinghen of Belgium, who has a chance of qualifying in the same super-heavyweight category as Hubbard, who transitioned to female at age 35.
Van Bellinghen had stressed in a prior interview that "I fully support the transgender community" and said she was aware defining a legal framework for transgender participation is difficult because of the "infinite variety of situations." However, she added, "anyone that has trained weightlifting at a high level knows this to be true in their bones: this particular situation is unfair to the sport and to the athletes."
Smith called it a "great point because not only do they compete as Olympic athletes, but should they medal, they have an opportunity for, you know, sponsorships and other forms of income, speaking opportunities. And those are being robbed of them. And the International Olympic Committee is really ignoring science."
She cited two studies, one from the Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology and another in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, saying researchers looked at the "anatomical and biological differences" and found they "do exist in the field of sport."
NBC News reported in January that a finding in the British Journal of Sports Medicine article suggested transgender women maintain an athletic advantage over their cisgender peers even after a year on hormone therapy. That's the current waiting period for Olympic athletes who are transitioning. The lead author was quoted saying that for the "Olympic level, the elite level, I'd say probably two years is more realistic than one year."
Hubbard, 43, began transitioning at 35, according to multiple news accounts. Before her transition, Hubbard competed in men's events, setting national records in junior competition, The Associated Press has reported.
Smith said the International Olympic Committee is responding as have "many 'woke' institutions in our culture these days. It has moved from corporate America, now we're seeing it in the Olympic Committee. And it really is a miscalculation, and I think they're going to lose heavily."
State Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Knoxville, questioned why Smith was even weighing in, saying, "We ought to let the Olympic Committee decide, they're the experts. And quite frankly, we shouldn't be legislating this. We should be letting these sports committees make their decisions. There's no experts in this area in the Tennessee Legislature. They might like to think that they're experts but they're not. Let them make their decisions.
"What is it about these Republicans that they need to have the power and control over everybody and everything in every part of their body," Johnson said. "It's ridiculous. It's agenda nonsense that we don't need to be legislating when we've got hundreds of thousands of Tennesseans with no health care - that's what we should be talking about. Still we have thousands of Tennesseans out of work, and we're getting ready to cut the federal assistance for them, while legislators got their federal loans."
Tennessee Republican lawmakers passed a number of bills denounced by LGBTQ critics including the Tennessee Equality Project and the national Human Rights Campaign as a "slate of hate" largely targeting the transgender community. One bill requires businesses, nonprofit entities and governments with multiple-person restroom facilities to post signs warning users if someone who had one gender at birth is allowed to use the restroom marked for the other gender.
Chris Sanders, executive director of the Tennessee Equality Project, said "Rep. Smith's comments are not a surprise because her voting record on LGBTQ bills has shown animosity to our community since she's been in office."
Contact Andy Sher at asher@timesfreepress.com or 615-255-0550. Follow on Twitter @AndySher1.