OSHKOSH, Wis. (WFRV) - Conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro joined U.S. Senate candidate Eric Hovde on the campaign trail on Monday afternoon. Local 5 News caught up with Hovde and Shapiro at their stop at Wyldewood Baptist Church in Oshkosh. "I'm here because this is one of the most important races in the nation," said Shapiro. "He (Hovde) needs to win, the Senate needs to remain in Republican hands." In Oshkosh, the two had a roundtable discussion on Title IX, a timely topic after the Oshkosh Area School District Board of Education recently passed new Title IX rules Local parents, students, and school board members shared with Hovde and Shapiro how they believe schools that allow transgender students to use the bathrooms and play in the sports of the gender they identify as has negatively impacted other students. "It does make boys just as uncomfortable, we do have morals and values," said one panelist who said she's a parent of kids in a local school district. "The boys in that lockerroom were very uncomfortable having her (a transgender student) stare at them while they were taking off their clothes." Isolated rain chance enters tonight, cooler temperatures tomorrow Other panelists noted that girls also get uncomfortable when students who identify as a girl, but were born a boy get to change in the same lockerrooms as them. Some also questioned the safety of allowing this to happen. A 2018 study by the UCLA School of Law Williams Institute found that "inclusion of gender identity in non-discrimination laws does not affect the number or frequency of criminal incidents in restrooms, locker rooms, and changing rooms." A Harvard School of Public Health study found that restrictive lockerroom or bathroom policies may be associated with higher risks of a transgender student getting assaulted. Other panelists at the roundtable on Monday afternoon had other concerns about these gender inclusive policies. Many said that other people that they talk to with similar views on these topics are afraid to speak out because they fear retaliation. "This is really about taking a minority (accommodating one transgender student) and giving them a preference over the majority of the people," said one panelist. Hovde echoed these sentiments in an interview he did with Local 5 News after the event. "Is there protection in place for a transgender kid, of course, but that doesn't mean that their rights overrule all the other kids in the school," said Hovde. "Just because you have one boy who is transitioning to a girl it doesn't outweigh all the rights of all the females." Hovde also brought up fairness when talking about allowing transgender boys to play in girl's sports. He said his daughter was a standout athlete in high school, but that her sporting career would have been dramatically impacted if she competed against athletes who were born males. Wisconsin school district make list of top 50 in America "It was wonderful seeing all the opportunity she had to compete in sports and achieve the success she did," Hovde said. "If she would have had to compete against guys who robbed her of those opportunities I find that as a father as fundamentally wrong." Hovde said that public schools should be more worried about teaching students about math, reading, and writing than about gender inclusive policies. The most recent data from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, reveals that nearly two-thirds of public school students aren't meeting proficiency standards in English language arts (38.9 percent proficient) and math (37.4 percent proficient). According to Pew Research done in 2022, 58 percent of all adults strongly favor or favor policies that require that trans athletes compete on teams that match the sex assigned to them at birth (17 percent strongly oppose/oppose and 24 percent are indifferent). The study also found that about 41 percent of adults strongly favor or favor policies that require trans individuals to use public restrooms of the sex assigned to them at birth (31 percent oppose or strongly oppose and 28 percent are indifferent). A Gallup poll done last year, found that 69 percent of Americans believe that kids should only compete on teams that match their birth gender. "I think there's a lot of fear mongering and a lot of assuming that there's an issue when it's something that isn't documented anywhere that it's happening," said Morgan Gald who is the outreach chair for Hate Free Outagamie. Gald said she and other members of 'Hate Free Outagamie' were upset when they all found out that Shapiro and Hovde were campaigning in Northeast Wisconsin. "These policies (ones that aren't gender inclusive) create an environment where school feels unsafe, there's another layer of discrimination, another layer where there's judgement," she said. The Democrat Party of Wisconsin also weighed in on Hovde's and Shapiro's Oshkosh visit, a spokesperson saying in a statement "it’s no surprise that Eric Hovde is appearing with Ben Shapiro, an anti-abortion, right wing podcaster who, just like Eric Hovde, has made insulting statements about millions of Wisconsinites." "Are we going to take a few in the minority and bend the rules for them (at the expense of where the) vast majority of people stand? I don't agree with that," countered Hovde. Hovde is running against incumbent Tammy Baldwin for one of Wisconsin's U.S. Senate seats. "We strongly condemn the harmful rhetoric espoused by Eric Hovde and Ben Shapiro during his campaign stop," Hate Free Outagamie said in a statement to Local 5 News. "Their divisive langue is designed to spread fear and discrimination against already vulnerable populations. Hate Free Outagamie stands firmly against any attempts to use fear mongering for political gain." "Gender inclusive policies and protections against sexual misconduct go hand-in-hand to make sure all students, no matter their gender identity, are treated with respect and feel safe," the statement read.