Elections are all about choices. Candidates and the horse-race-obsessed media often try to make it seem like issues are entirely black and white; or, in this case, red or blue. 

Yet some issues – like the future of women’s sports – aren’t like that. People don’t have to choose between preserving opportunity, safety, and fairness for women, and the kind and inclusive treatment of people who identify as trans. We can be for both.

As a fitness instructor, I know how much all people – from the youngest children to our senior citizens – benefit from athletic training and staying fit and active. No matter someone’s sex, race, gender identity, sexuality, or disability, getting involved in sports and fitness activities has the potential to better people’s lives. Physical activity provides a host of benefits, including improved mental health, less isolation, lower rates of substance abuse, and better outcomes in academics. The list could go on and on.

It is critical that we provide opportunities for athletic participation for anyone and everyone who is willing to engage. 

Yet that doesn’t mean that we have to gut rules and policies that create fair playing fields for athletic competitions. Arizona offers competitive golf tournaments for senior citizens. There are also robust competitions for boys and girls based on their ages. Age restrictions are put in place not because of a desire to exclude players outside of those age thresholds but to ensure that golfers who are young and developing their skills, or who are older and past their physical prime years, have the chance to compete against those with similar skills. It’s common sense. 

Sex-specific women’s leagues and athletic competitions were created for the same reason: to give women the chance to win. If there weren’t separate leagues for women and for girls, if all sports were co-ed, then women and girls wouldn’t have the chance to win or, in most cases, to even make the team. It’s simply a scientific fact that men and women are physically different, and those physical differences give men an advantage in athletic competitions. 

Recognizing that fact and insisting that female athletic competitions are reserved for women and girls only isn’t needlessly exclusionary; it’s necessary. Americans are seeing every day what happens when males are allowed to compete in women’s sports. Women are getting injured, losing places on teams, and having awards and opportunities stripped from them. Sadly, many girls and women are being discouraged from even playing sports at all. This is a tragedy. 

Title IX was passed more than 50 years ago to stop the kind of sex discrimination that was preventing women and girls from participating in sports. It’s astonishing – and plainly sexist – that today, the Biden-Harris administration is gutting sex-based protections and prioritizing the interests of men who want to compete in women’s leagues over women themselves. Overwhelmingly, Americans know this is wrong. 

Women’s interests are being downgraded when it comes to privacy. Women, including sexual assault survivors, are being told they have no choice but to change and shower in front of men who claim to feel more comfortable in women’s spaces. Women’s comfort and desire for safe, private spaces don’t matter.

This isn’t inclusion. It isn’t kindness. It’s a war on women and on common sense. I’m grateful that some Arizona candidates have spoken out and are protecting women’s sports and spaces, while some federal candidates have indicated they would make restoring women’s right to single-sex sports and spaces a priority. Why haven’t others made the same promise? Why haven’t they even answered this question? 

Inclusion does not require that we abandon common sense and destroy opportunities based on age, sex, or ability. I believe we can achieve both – and want leaders who are willing to stand with women too.

Alison Furno is a fitness instructor, volleyball coach, and resident of Phoenix, Arizona. She is a member of Independent Women’s Network and co-host of Into The Fire.