‘Deeply Regressive’: Riley Gaines Slams Biden’s Title IX Rules at Pro-Women Sports Rally

Riley Gaines

The Biden administration’s changes to Title IX will reverse 50 years of progress for female athletes by allowing biological men to keep competing in women’s sports, pro-women’s sports leaders said Friday at an Our Bodies, Our Sports coalition rally.

The event in Lancaster, Pennsylvania was one of the first stops on the coalition’s Take Back Title IX bus tour, which calls on America’s leaders to ensure equal protections for female athletes under the federal regulation.

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National Collegiate Athletics Organization Rules Male Athletes Can’t Compete in Women’s Sports

NAIA President and CEO Jim Carr

The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) announced Monday that only biological females would be allowed to play in women’s sports.

The organization’s Council of Presidents voted to approve a policy allowing “only students whose biological sex is female” in its women’s sports competitions, according to The Washington Post. The policy will go into effect on Aug. 1 in time for the 2024-2025 season.

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Riley Gaines Announces Lawsuit Against NCAA over Transgender Policies

Riley Gaines

Former college swimmer Riley Gaines and 15 other college athletes on Thursday announced a lawsuit against the NCAA over its transgender policies. 

“I’m suing the NCAA along with 15 other collegiate athletes who have lost out on titles, records, & roster spots to men posing as women,” Gaines wrote on the social media platform, X. “The NCAA continues to explicitly violate the federal civil rights law of Title IX. About time someone did something about it.”

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Federal Court Bars NCAA from Enforcing NIL-Recruitment Ban After Legal Challenge by AGs of TN and VA

The Eastern District Court of Tennessee granted Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti’s preliminary injunction request in his lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) illegal name, image, and likeness (NIL)-recruitment ban on Friday.

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Sporting Associations Start to Crack Down on Men In Women’s Sports

Sporting associations have tightened rules regarding transgender athletes competing in women’s sports in 2023, drawing complaints from LGBT activists.

The issue of men competing in women’s sports has received considerable scrutiny amid instances such as Laurel Hubbard, a biological male, competing against women in the weightlifting events during the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, as well as University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas’s participation in the 2022 NCAA championships, where the biological male won the 500-yard women’s final and placed highly in other events. The international governing bodies for cricket, fishing and track and field barred biological males from competing in women’s events in 2023, following a similar decision by the international governing body for competitive swimming in 2022.

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Governors Ask NCAA to Reconsider Transgender Athlete Policy

Nine governors are asking the National Collegiate Athletics Association to rewrite its policy on transgender participation in sports, saying it is unfair to female athletes.

The NCAA updated a 2010 policy last year that requires transgender females to show they have undergone a year of testosterone suppression treatment. Testosterone levels are also checked before competitions.

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Virginia Women’s College Swim Team Calls for Policies That ‘Protect Women’

Virginia’s Roanoke College women’s swimming team held a press conference on Thursday to call upon the NCAA, USA Swimming and state lawmakers to develop policies that organize competitive sports according to biological sex, after a transgender student temporarily joined the swim team this season.

Ten team members spoke at the conference, along with women’s sports activists, former college swimmers Riley Gaines and Paula Scanlan, several women’s organizations and the girls’ parents.

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Female Athletes Threaten Legal Action if NCAA Continues to Let Males Compete in Women’s Sports

An organization of female athletes sent a letter Thursday to the National Collegiate Athletic Association, demanding that the NCAA reverse its policy of allowing male athletes who identify as women to compete on women’s teams, or face legal action.

A group of current and former collegiate and professional female athletes also protested Thursday outside the NCAA convention in San Antonio, after the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, or ICONS, sent the letter.

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Female Athletes Demand NCAA Protect Women’s Sports Outside Annual Convention

Female athletes, alumni and supporters delivered a petition to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Thursday demanding that the governing body take deliberate action to prohibit men from competing in women’s sports.

The petition was delivered after the “Our Body, Our Sports” rally Thursday morning in San Antonio, Texas, during the NCAA’s annual convention. The petition demanded that the NCAA commit to single-sex athletic teams and “keep women’s sports female.”

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Baker to Transition from Massachusetts Governor to NCAA President

Outgoing Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker has already found a landing spot for his post-political career.

The second-term Republican governor has been named as the next president of the National Collegiate Athletics Association, the organization said. Baker, who played basketball at Harvard University, will take the reins in March from Dr. Mark Emmert. Emmert will serve as a consultant to the organization through June.

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ESPN Writer: Diversity Hiring Is Good for NCAA Coaches, but Not for Recruiting

A contributing writer for ESPN recently argued in favor of diversity hiring for NCAA coaches but told Campus Reform that the standard should not apply for recruited athletes.

Richard Lapchick, who is a former professor of sports business management at the University of Central Florida, wrote on ESPN.com that the NCAA needs to increase gender and racial representation among coaches and other senior staff on athletics teams. 

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Virginia Tech Swimmer Writes Letter to NCAA in Opposition to Transgender Athletes

A female swimmer at a Virginia university wrote a letter to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) saying she was cheated out of a spot in the NCAA national championship 500-meter race because of biologically male, transgender swimmer Lia Thomas. 

Reka Gyorgy, a senior student-athlete at Virginia Tech University, called Thomas’ participation in the event “a problem.”

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Virginia Tech Swimmer Writes Letter to NCAA in Opposition to Transgender Athletes

A female swimmer at a Virginia university wrote a letter to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) saying she was cheated out of a spot in the NCAA national championship 500-meter race because of biologically male, transgender swimmer Lia Thomas. 

Reka Gyorgy, a senior student-athlete at Virginia Tech University, called Thomas’ participation in the event “a problem.”

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University of Virginia Women’s Swimmer Takes Second to Biological Male in National Championship

A University of Virginia Women’s Swimmer took home second place in the NCAA national championship Thursday, finishing behind controversial biologically male, transgender swimmer Lia Thomas of the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn). 

Freshman Emma Weyant was the fastest female swimmer in the 500 meter race, but that was not enough to win the women’s national championship. 

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NCAA Officer Resigns amid Transgender Policy Controversy as Reports of Lia Thomas’ ‘Entitlement’ Surface

Dorian Rhea Debussy

Dorian Rhea Debussy, a member of the NCAA Division III LGBTQ OneTeam program, recently resigned over the organization’s updated policy on transgender athletes. 

“I’m deeply troubled by what appears to be a devolving level of active, effective, committed, and equitable support for gender diverse student-athletes within the NCAA’s leadership,” Debussy said, according to Fox News, after the national organization adopted a “sport-by-sport” approach to determining transgender athlete’s eligibility to compete on opposite-gender teams. 

According to Fox News, Debussy said, “As a non-binary, trans-feminine person, I can no longer, in good conscience, maintain my affiliation with the NCAA.”

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NCAA Updates Trans Athlete Policy After Lia Thomas Swept Up Women’s Swimming Titles

The NCAA changed its policy on transgender athlete participation Wednesday as concern mounted over swimmer Lia Thomas, a biological male, identifying as a woman and immediately dominating the sport.

Transgender athletes will need to show testosterone levels within their sport’s approved range four weeks before championship selections, according to the new rules. They will need to document their testosterone levels at the beginning of the season as well as four weeks before championship selections in the coming academic year.

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Biological Male Runner Barred from Women’s Olympics Due to High Testosterone

CeCé Telfer

A biologically male runner has been banned from the women’s 400-meter Olympic hurdle event because the runner did not meet the World Athletics conditions on testosterone levels.

“CeCe [Telfer] has turned her focus towards the future and is continuing to train,” the transgender athlete’s manager said, the Associated Press reported, adding that Telfer will respect the decision. “She will compete on the national — and world — stage again soon.”

Transgender runner Telfer won the NCAA title competing for a women’s team in 2019, according to the AP.

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U.S. Supreme Court Rules Against NCAA on Payment for College Athletes

Paying college athletes has been a hotly debated topic for years, but now the U.S. Supreme Court has released a ruling on the issue.

A group of current and former student athletes brought the lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association, arguing that the organization violated antitrust laws when it prevented student athletes from accepting certain education-related benefits.

The case, filed in 2018, challenged the NCAA and the biggest conferences including the Pac-12, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, and ACC. The Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of the students Monday, saying the NCAA could not deny those benefits, which could include things like “scholarships for graduate or vocational school, payments for academic tutoring, or paid posteligibility internships.”

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Florida Transgender Sports Ban Advances Despite Potential Backlash

Women playing lacrosse

Florida Republicans are advancing bills banning transgender athletes from women’s and girls’ sports despite – perhaps, in spite of – potential corporate criticism and likely sanctions by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

“I certainly couldn’t care less,” House Speaker Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor, said Wednesday after the House approved the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act in a 77-40 vote after a four-hour debate in which 18 amendments were rejected.

The Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, House Bill 1475, filed by Rep. Kaylee Tuck, R-Lake Placid, would enact a blanket ban on transgender athletes competing as women in Florida. Transgender athletes could still compete in men’s sports.

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NCAA Signals That It May Pull Championships from States That Protect Women’s Sports

Women playing basketball

The NCAA signaled that it may pull championship games from places that stop biological males from competing in women’s sports.

The collegiate sports league released a statement on Monday reaffirming that it supports “the opportunity for transgender student-athletes to compete in college sports,” which is grounded in the value of “fair competition.”

“The NCAA has a long-standing policy that provides a more inclusive path for transgender participation in college sports,” continues the statement. “Our approach — which requires testosterone suppression treatment for transgender women to compete in women’s sports — embraces the evolving science on this issue and is anchored in participation policies of both the International Olympic Committee and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee.”

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Commentary: Governor Kristi Noem Strikes Out

kristi-noem_840x480

“I’m just worried about our perception, said State Senator Reynold Nesiba, a Sioux Falls Democrat, “because I think, generally, South Dakotans are a welcoming people.” 

Nesiba was speaking to reporters about South Dakota House Bill 1217, a measure intended to limit transgender participation in sports. The measure would be uncontroversial in saner times, or at least those during which most people were still aware of the basic physical differences between the sexes. But we no longer live in sane times. 

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Commentary: ‘Woke’ Science Has No Place in Government Policymaking

“Science, at its core, is a social phenomenon.” This observation, from Alondra Nelson, the newly appointed deputy director of President Biden’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), certainly qualifies for a prominent place in the Pantheon of Inane Statements. The core of science, in fact, is the scientific method—posing and testing hypotheses; carefully gathering, examining, and generating experimental evidence; and finally, synthesizing all the available information into logical conclusions. 

Dr. Nelson’s assertion is inauspicious, but perhaps we should not be too surprised by a “squishy” statement from someone whose undergraduate degree was in sociology, while her doctorate is in “American Studies.” What, we wonder, qualifies her to be deputy director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy? And how does it comport with President Biden’s commitment to always rely on “science and truth.” We suspect it is an example of how lip service to science has invaded the domain of real science. 

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Three Hundred Female Athletes Support Idaho’s Barring of Biological Males from Women’s Sports

More than 300 female athletes are speaking out in support of Idaho’s decision to protect women’s sports from biological men.

Female professional, Olympic, and National Collegiate Athletic Association athletes on July 29 sent a letter to the NCAA board of governors asking it to reject calls from LGBT activists to boycott Idaho over its new law protecting women’s athletics from participation by transgender biological males.

“We do not want to watch our athletic achievements be erased from the history books by individuals with all the inherent athletic advantages that come from a male body,” Save Women’s Sports wrote in its letter.

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