University president pushes back on ‘fringe agenda’ behind male athletes competing in women’s sports

(Daily Caller News Foundation) – Houghton University President Dr. Wayne Lewis Jr. said during an interview Monday that he would not condone men competing in women’s sports after a biological male beat out female athletes at a track championship meet.

Lewis was addressing the All-Atlantic Regional Championships that took place on March 1 and 2, where Sadie Schreiner, a biological male student at Rutgers Institute of Technology identifying as transgender, took first place in the women’s 200-meter event, bumping one of Houghton’s female athletes into fifth place, according to the National Review. The New York university president said during the interview that “it is wrong to let biological males compete in girls’ and women’s athletics” and that he could no longer stand by and say nothing. 

“I reached the place where I could no longer remain silent on this issue…When I see young women with Houghton written across their uniform…at a competitive disadvantage, sometimes losing opportunities that are hard-earned, there is no way that I, as their president, will continue to sit on the sidelines and refuse to advocate for change,” Lewis said.

Schreiner won the women’s event with a 25.09 running time, while the last place time in the men’s division was 23.08. In January, Schreiner also claimed two records in the women’s 200-meter and 300-meter dashes and placed first in the 4×400-meter relay, according to the National Review.

Schreiner was awarded a Liberty League Women’s Track & Field Performer of the Week award for the performance, National Review reported.

“Too many leaders, parents, professional athletes, and people of goodwill have been silent as female athletes are humiliated, silenced, and robbed of hard-earned opportunities,” Lewis said in a statement released alongside the interview. “That silence is complicit with the fringe agenda that threatens to dismantle girls’ and women’s athletics.”