David Jolly, a former Republican congressman who is now running as a Democrat against U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds to replace Ron DeSantis as Florida governor, is raising eyebrows in the Sunshine State with his suggestion that boys have a constitutional right to play on girls’ sports teams.
His comments came during the “To the Contrary” podcast Charlie Sykes last year, and were unearthed Wednesday by Libs of TikTok.
Sykes had asked Jolly outright: “How do you navigate that issue?”
“I fundamentally think it’s an issue for the courts,” the Democrat replied. “And I don’t think one rule should apply to everything.”
“I think some latitude among the sports leagues to make decisions, but ultimately, it’s a constitutional question that the courts are gonna have to decide.”
Jolly continued: “I think where I fundamentally diverge from Republicans on this issue is you can immediately see where leaders and voters are either working in good faith towards equity or in bad faith against it. This is a new and novel moment for us as a country.
“It’s OK to wrestle with it. But you’re either wrestling to resolve it on behalf of all Americans, their fundamental and constitutional rights, their respect and their dignity, or you’re working to humiliate them. And I think it’s pretty disgusting what we’ve seen from Republicans in the past several years on this.
“I don’t think we need to knock down that youth soccer player who is working with their family and their doctor on whatever their current crisis is personally. I think it can be supportive of them to allow them to play in youth sports.
“If it’s a question of Olympic trials, obviously I think you get too far down the road there saying, Maybe it’s a bridge too far to let trains athletes in certain sports, but let’s leave it to the sports leagues.”
Donalds is a staunch opponent of biological males competing in girls’ or women’s sports, and his campaign posted video Wednesday of the Republican blasting Jolly’s stance.
“My opponent’s somebody who says it’s OK for boys to be in girls’ sports. It’s just him and the WNBA,” Donalds said.
“They’re the only two that think this is OK. Everybody else has said, ‘No, that’s actually quite stupid.’ Even the Europeans are realizing that’s dumb. But this is where the radical Democrats have gone in America today, and it’s sad to see.”
