The Democratic House candidate says women aren't worried about transgender athletes in their sports locker rooms

As female athletes and lawmakers across the country fight to keep biological men out of women's sports competitions and locker rooms, a Democrat running for the House of Representatives says she and female athletes aren't worried about the issue.

Sue Altman, who is running for New Jersey's 7th Congressional District, told the New York Post that she and others in the women's locker room are not concerned about the presence of transgender athletes in women's sports.

“As someone who supports women's rights and women's sports, I promise you that we in the locker rooms of women's sports teams are not too worried about this,” Altman said. “We were concerned about having equal access to time in the gym, good referees, good coaches so you don't get hurt, fair grants in scholarships and equal pay at the higher levels.”

Altman advocated for allowing transgender athletes in girls' sports at the youth level, but suggested she would be in favor of leaving the decision to allow those athletes to compete up to individual committees.

“I will let individual sports committees decide on the highest, highest level things, but fundamentally we need to respect people of all genders and give young children, especially young people and adolescents, who are struggling with their gender identity, the chance to express themselves to measure,” she told the Post.

“I grew up around people who are now trans, transitioning from boy to girl or girl to boy, and these people had difficulties in their youth.”

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New Zealand's Laurel Hubbard, the first transgender Olympian, attempts to lift in the women's 87kg weightlifting final at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. (Wally Skalij /Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Altman is a former college basketball player who played at Columbia University in the early 2000s. There, she finished her career as the program's eighth-leading scorer in history with 964 points. She did this despite playing for Holy Cross her freshman year, transferring to Columbia, and sitting out her sophomore year due to NCAA policy.

Altman also played professionally in Europe for Killester in the Irish Women's Super League in Dublin and for Medical Instinct Veilchen in Göttingen, Germany.

Almtan said she grew up in a family of Republicans, but her time at Columbia made her more liberal. In an interview with the Columbia student newspaper in March, she cited the Bush administration's response to 9/11 as a reason for her switching parties while in college.

Now she's running against Rep. Tom Kean Jr., R-N.J., who was first elected to Congress in 2022.

Altman is also running in an election year that has seen multiple lawsuits filed by female athletes and at least 24 lawsuits by state attorneys general in response to transgender athletes in women's sports and Title IX changes by the Biden-Harris administration, which some experts believe are biological processes allow men into the women's locker rooms and onto their playing field.

In April, the administration issued a sweeping rule to clarify that Title IX's ban on discrimination based on “sex” in schools also covers discrimination based on gender identity, sexual orientation, and “pregnancy or related medical conditions.”

GOP governor reveals why he ordered schools to bar transgender people from girls' sports

President Biden and Vice President Harris (SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)

The rule came into force on August 1st, and for the first time it was said in the law that gender discrimination also includes conduct that relates to a person's behavior Gender identity. The Biden administration insisted the regulation did not affect athletic fitness. However, several experts Evidence presented told Fox News Digital in June that the proposal would ultimately bring more biological men into women's sports.

On August 16th the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to reject an emergency request from the Biden administration to enforce parts of that new rule, which includes anti-discrimination protections for transgender students under Title IX, after more than two dozen Republican attorneys general filed lawsuits against the administration had filed to block their enforcement.

Meanwhile, Brooke Slusser, a member of the San Jose State women's volleyball team, joined 18 other athletes Lawsuit against the NCAA about its gender identity policies. The lawsuit alleged that Slusser, who transferred to San Jose State, became concerned for her safety after realizing that one of her new teammates, Blaire Fleming, was transgender. Three of San Jose State's opponents have already lost games to the team since news of the lawsuit spread.

Former NCAA swimmer and OutKick contributor Riley Gaines testified in Georgia about her experiences competing against transgender athlete Lia Thomas, a biological male, and sharing the locker room with her along with four other NCAA All-American athletes . Gaines is joined by Reka Gyorgy, Kylee Alons, Grace Countie and Kaitlynn Wheeler, all members of the Independent Council on Women's Sports, who filed a lawsuit against the NCAA in March alleging the association knowingly violated Title IX. by allowing Thomas to participate.

The committee's investigation will focus on the 2022 NCAA Division I Women's Swimming and Diving Championships, where Thomas competed for the University of Pennsylvania women's swimming team. Gaines competed against Thomas, who identifies as a woman, at the 200-yard championships in 2022 and ultimately tied.

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University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas (left) and Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines are seen after finishing tied for fifth in the 200-meter freestyle final at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships on March 18, 2022 . (Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Far from Altman's constituents in the Northeast, a Republican governor has already issued an executive order to ensure that schools prevent biological males from participating in women's sports.

On August 28, Idaho Governor Brad Little signed an executive order enforcing the Defending Women's Sports Act, which enacted new protocols for the state's public schools to encourage the exclusion of transgender athletes in women's sports. In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital on August 30, Little did not rule out implementing gender readiness tests for all girls and women's sports teams, but added: “I would need to see really good evidence that that's necessary.”

But Altman says she wants to reduce barriers for transgender athletes to compete as women for the sake of their mental health.

“If we as a society decide that setting rules about who is and isn't female is more important than giving young children the chance to be on teams and compete and be part of something bigger than themselves, especially young people who are more.” “If someone is prone to suicide and bullying, then I think we've lost our way a little bit,” Altman said.

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