‘It’s complicated’: Karine Jean-Pierre dodges whether Biden thinks biological men should be allowed to play women’s sports
- A reporter asked about biological males competing in women’s sports
- Jean-Pierre said it was “complicated” and there is a “range of viewpoints”.
On Tuesday, complications arose in the White House briefing room.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre did not directly answer whether President Joe Biden believes that biological men should be able to compete with female athletes amid a fierce debate over transgender sports policies.
Instead, she repeatedly called the matter “complicated” and made it clear that there were differing opinions on the subject.
“It’s a complicated issue,” she said in one of several variants of her answer, without taking a clear position.
She was asked about Republican former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, who has highlighted transgender participation in sports as a campaign issue.
She was asked about Haley’s statement that “the idea of biological boys playing in girls’ sports is the women’s issue of our time,” and whether or not Biden agrees that it is a women’s rights issue.
Complications: White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre avoided a direct answer when asked about President Biden’s views on biological men competing in women’s sports
“So we’ve talked about this a lot… It’s a complicated issue. And there’s a wide range of views,” she said, speaking of the Department of Education’s policy of providing flexibility in the development of athletics policy.
A reporter pointed to Biden’s granddaughters and asked if he thinks it’s fair for girls to compete with biological men.
“I just answered the question,” she said angrily.
‘It’s a complicated issue. It’s a really complicated issue with a wide range of views – a wide range. There is no yes or no answer to this. It’s complicated. There’s a rule that the Department of Education has put forward, and we’re going to continue that process. And it is, again, that we want to make sure that while we are setting bounds (guard rails) with this rule, we are also preventing discrimination against transgender children. Another complicated issue,” she said.
“It’s a complicated issue,” said Jean-Pierre repeatedly when asked about it. She noted that there was “a wide range of views.”
She referred to an administrative rule prohibits outright prohibitions on transgender athletes, but allows schools receiving federal Title IX funding to limit it.
Her complicated answer came in response to an issue that made headlines and sometimes pitted schools and athletes against each other.
The issue came to the fore when swimmer Lia Thomas competed on the University of Pennsylvania men’s team for three years, then switched and came out as a transgender woman. She won the 500-meter freestyle at the 2022 NCAA Women’s Division I Championships against women.
In June, Haley was criticized for linking transgender participation in sports to a rise in teen suicides.
“My daughter ran in high school. I don’t even know how I’m supposed to have that conversation with her,” she said at a CNN town hall. “How are we supposed to get our girls used to having biological boys in their dressing rooms? And then we wonder why a third of our teenage girls seriously considered suicide last year. We have to grow strong girls, confident girls.’
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