During the Reagan presidency years, one of first lady Nancy Reagan’s initiatives was the “Just Say No” approach to drug abuse.

Whether illicit drug use declined due to this slogan is controversial, but the premise is simple. When confronted by an unacceptable premise or option, saying 'no' is the simplest way to slap it down.

Drug use is still rampant and far worse than it was in the 1980s with drug overdose deaths now over 100,000 annually, according to the CDC. Obviously, too many Americans are saying 'yes' to drugs, rather than no.

Another social pathology, not much of an issue in the 1980s, is transgenderism. LGBTQIA2S+ and whatever additional letters are needed to make the letter salad current and incoherent, wasn’t a buzzword during Reagan’s years.

In the 1980s, no person of rational mind believed men could become pregnant or breastfeed, that men should use women’s bathrooms or locker rooms, or that men could fairly compete against women in sports. But here we are in 2024, when these concepts are in many quarters, as seemingly normal as sunrise and sunset.

This Overton Window shift began with a University of Pennsylvania swimmer named Will Thomas, an unremarkable member of the men’s swim team whose life and swimming career went on hiatus due to COVID. During his year off, Will became Lia, joining the Penn women’s swim team. While a mediocre men’s swimmer, Lea is anything but as a women’s swimmer. “UPenn trans swimmer, 22, sparks outrage by smashing women’s competition records after competing as a man for three seasons.”

Lia went from Will, a back-bencher, to Lia, an all-star, winning ivy league championships, setting ivy league records, and winning an NCAA swimming championship. How is that fair to the women Lia beat, women who have been training in their sports for years only to be denied championships or records by having to compete against a guy?

If playing on such an uneven playing field, why don’t these women athletes follow the lead of Nancy Reagan and “Just Say 'No'”? Particularly in situations where the biologic male has a clear advantage and likelihood of winning, the female athletes could simply refuse to compete.

Imagine a large swimming or track event where the trans-athlete is the only one on the starting blocks, the remaining female competitors standing behind the blocks and refusing to compete. The woke sportscasters will be tongue-tied in how to respond and narrate the event.

Perhaps a clever sports commentator will create a new meme, as when NASCAR fans were loudly chanting “F*** Joe Biden” which the quick thinking NBC sports reporter claimed was actually, “Let’s Go Brandon,” making the phrase an encapsulation of the Biden presidency.

A group of West Virginia middle school students just said 'no' to a biologic male attempting to compete against the girls in the shot put:

A West Virginia transgender athlete won her shot put competition in her first sporting event following an appeals court ruling that allowed her to participate - as other contestants refused to play against her.

Becky Pepper-Jackson, 13, competed in the Harris County Middle School Track and Field Championship on Thursday, two days after a court ruled West Virginia’s transgender sports ban violates the teen's right under Title IX.

Pepper-Jackson took home first place in the shot put competition with her 32-foot effort, three feet further than second place, and she placed second in discus.

Despite being legally allowed to compete, some athletes protested Pepper-Jackson's participation by refusing to play against her.

Five girls from Lincoln Middle School stepped up to the circle for their turn, then refused to throw the ball.

One could argue that the transgender girl was only 13 years old, where gender differences are minimal or nonexistent. As an example, 5- and 7-year-old boys and girls compete together in soccer and T-ball as this is pre-puberty, before the effects of testosterone kick in.

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But that argument doesn’t hold. The Cleveland Clinic recognizes, “Boys begin puberty sometime between the ages of 9 and 14.” Meaning the 13-year-old shot putter is well into puberty.

Puberty is the issue here. The science, according to the International Olympic Committee is simple: “A number of scientific papers have recently shown people who have undergone male puberty retain significant advantages in power and strength even after taking medication to suppress their testosterone levels.”

Puberty is when boys differentiate from girls through muscle and bone mass, strength, and power. Once the athletic engine is built, adult testosterone levels matter little.

Even a 13-year-old is well on his way to building a male athletic engine, despite identifying as a girl.

If not, then why don’t men and women shot putters compete against each other in the Olympics?

Men start by putting a heavier shot, 16 pounds for men, 8.8 pounds for women, almost a two-fold difference. Even with that difference, men out-put the women.

In the 2020 Olympics, the gold medal put distance was 23.3 meters for the man and 20.6 meters for the woman, despite the huge difference in shot weight.

Title IX is also an empty argument. The title states:

No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.

What is sex? The simple way of determining sex is to pull down your pants and look in a mirror. For almost every human, it’s a binary choice -- boy/girl, guy/gal, man/woman.

Or ask Yale University School of Medicine, “The term sex should be used as a classification, generally as male or female, according to the reproductive organs and functions that derive from the chromosomal complement (generally XX for female and XY for male).”

Title IX is about biology, not identification, preferences, or what the school counselor suggests. Transgender athletes, specifically biologic men competing against biologic women, violates Title IX by discriminating on the basis of sex.

Perhaps the DOJ, when not prosecuting Donald Trump and his supporters, should take a look at this. Fat chance of that.

In the meantime, female athletes should “just say no” and refuse to compete on an uneven playing field. Congratulation to 5 West Virginia middle school girls for putting their foot (and shot) down. Perhaps high school, college, and professional women could do the same and start putting an end to this new “war on women”.

Brian C. Joondeph, M.D., is a physician and writer. Follow me on Twitter @retinaldoctor, Substack Dr. Brian’s Substack, Truth Social @BrianJoondeph, and LinkedIn @Brian Joondeph.