Wyoming University Students Object to Senator Acknowledging Only 2 Sexes

Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) meets with the media in Washington on Nov. 9, 2020. (Stefani Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images)

A U.S. Senator was booed at during a university commencement ceremony after acknowledging the existence of only male and female sexes as a “fundamental scientific truth.”

Sen. Cynthia Lummis, a Republican representing Wyoming, delivered her commencement address to the new graduates at the University of Wyoming (UW) on May 14. Toward the end of her 20-minute speech, the senator said the students are entering a “disruptive, transformative time” where “individual rights and individual life” are constantly challenged by governments equipped with better technologies.

“There are those in government who believe not that the Creator endowed us with inalienable rights ... but that government created those rights,” Lummis, a UW graduate from Cheyenne, said in the speech. “And [that] the government should redefine those rights, including our rights to freedom of speech, religion, property, assembly, and keep and bear arms.”

“Even fundamental scientific truths—such as the existence of two sexes, male and female—are subject to challenge these days,” she continued, as the audience responded with sounds of protest and scattered applause.

The disruption lasted about half a minute, during which Lummis tried to say something but eventually waited for the crowd to quiet down before returning to her speech.

In a statement provided to Oil City News, a spokesperson for Lummis said the senator won’t walk back her comment but is willing to apologize to anyone who felt offended by it.

“My reference to the existence of two sexes was intended to highlight the times in which we find ourselves, times in which the metric of biological sex is under debate with potential implications for the shared Wyoming value of equality,” the statement read.

“I share the fundamental belief that women and men are equal, but also acknowledge that there are biological differences and circumstances in which these differences need to be recognized. That being said, it was never my intention to make anyone feel unwelcome or disrespected, and for that, I apologize. I have appreciated hearing from members of the University of Wyoming community on this issue, and I look forward to continuing this dialogue.”

UW president Ed Seidel addressed the incident in a short message posted Sunday, saying that while university officials “respect the right of all to express their views ... we unequivocally state that UW is an institution that supports and celebrates its diverse communities.”

The first-ever woman elected to represent Wyoming in the U.S. Senate, Lummis is one of the 23 Republican Senators backing a bill called the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2021. The bill would make it a federal crime under Title IX for colleges and universities that receive federal funds “to permit a person whose sex is male to participate in an athletic program or activity that is designated for women or girls.”

In Wyoming, Republican lawmakers also pushed a similar bill aimed to “prohibit biological males from athletic teams and sports designated for females” in the state’s public schools. The bill passed the state Senate in March but failed to move forward from there.