OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — An Oklahoma state senator has filed a bill that would prohibit biological males from joining school sports teams specifically designated for women and girls.

“Athletic teams that are sponsored by a school or sponsored by a private school whose students or teams compete against a school shall be expressly designated as one of the following based on biological sex: 1. ‘males,’ ‘men’ or ‘boys,’ 2. ‘females,’ ‘women’ or ‘girls,’ or 3. ‘coed’ or ‘mixed,'” reads Senate Bill 331, introduced by Sen. Micheal Bergstrom, R-Adair.

“Athletic teams designated for ‘females,’ ‘women’ or ‘girls’ shall not be open to students of the male sex,” the measure declares.

The bill, also known as the “Save Women’s Sports Act,” allows female students whose athletic opportunities have been harmed to file suit, requesting an injunction and damages.

“The State Board of Education, the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education and any school athletic association or intercollegiate association of which a school is a member shall be prohibited from entertaining a complaint, opening an investigation or taking any other adverse action against a school for maintaining athletic teams or sports for students of the female sex,” the act additionally mandates.

Bergstrom says that the proactive legislation is needed in light of reports from other states where women have found themselves having to compete against biological males who identify as female.

“We have seen this happening around our nation: young women who have trained for years to become the best in their sport find themselves competing against young men who decide to identify as female,” he told local television station KOKH. “Now is the time for the legislature to act and head off the issue in Oklahoma.”

However, in writing an editorial for Tula World, commentator Ginnie Graham opined that “lawmakers have better things to do with their time.”

“It’s legislation encouraging discrimination, not preventing it,” she asserted. “Oklahoma is not facing a sports controversy around these gender politics. This is cut-and-paste legislation circulating state legislatures without regard to local issues.”

“These type of hot-button, social warfare laws do nothing to improve our state. It digs in the divisions, perpetuates stereotypes and stirs up fear,” Graham said. “Based on this ill-proposed bill, if a girl on an opposing team appears too muscular or has a low voice, does the ref have to investigate? What about a boy who is small for his size? Who decides who is a boy or girl?”

Conversely, Bergstrom simply told reporters, “It’s unfair to ask our female athletes to compete against biological males in any sporting event unless the team is categorized as co-ed.”

Read the proposed legislation in full here.

As previously reported, a similar bill has been filed in North Dakota and federal legislation was also presented last month by Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii.

THE GOSPEL

While some view transgenderism as a medical condition, Christians believe the matter is also a spiritual issue at its root — one that stems from the same predicament all men everywhere face due to the Fall.

The Bible teaches that all are born with the Adamic sin nature, having various innate feelings and inclinations that are contrary to the law of God and being utterly incapable of breaking free by themselves.

“Bitter experience teaches that the imprisoning net clings too tightly to be stripped from our limbs by our own efforts. Nay rather, the net and the captive are one, and he who tries to cast off the oppression which hinders him from following that which is good is trying to cast off himself,” wrote the late preacher and Bible commentator Alexander Maclaren.

Jesus outlined in John 3:5-7 that men must be regenerated by the second birth, and be transformed from being in Adam to being a new creation in Christ, or they cannot see the kingdom of Heaven. It is known in Christianity as the doctrine of regeneration.

The Bible explains the dichotomy of flesh and spirit, stating in Romans 8:5-8, “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.”

“So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.”

“But to men writhing in the grip of a sinful past, or paralyzed beyond writhing and indifferent, because [they are] hopeless, or because they have come to like their captivity,” said Maclaren, “comes one whose name is ‘The Breaker,’ whose mission it is to proclaim liberty to the captives, and whose hand laid on the cords that bind a soul, causes them to drop harmless from the limbs and sets the bondsman free.”

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