Riley Gaines calls out Democrats' 'disheartening' pushback on House bill protecting women's sports
Podcast host Riley Gaines joined 'Fox & Friends' to discuss why she considers far-left criticism of the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act 'theatrical performance.'
Common sense is making a big comeback, especially today, with President Trump signing another executive order to ensure that sports competitions meant for female athletes actually are for women. The order states men are barred from participating in women’s athletic divisions and that entities that "maintain policies, practices, rules, or regulations that permit biological males to compete against biological females or vice-versa in athletic activities violate Title IX and are subject to enforcement action which could include the loss of federal funding."
It’s amazing that such an executive order is necessary, but it is. The Biden administration, in concert with Democrats in Congress and across the country, has been waging an all-out war against female athletes. Around the country, male athletes have been gaining access to competitions that were meant for females.
I experienced this first hand when the NCAA allowed Lia Thomas—formerly Will Thomas—to swim at the Division I Women’s Swimming and Diving National Championships. Three years prior, he had competed on the men’s team at the same university. Not only did Lia Thomas win a women’s DI national title, robbing that honor from many female Olympians and American record holders, but he was allowed to dress and undress in the women’s locker rooms. The female athletes did not consent to undressing alongside a fully intact male exposing his male genitalia, but the comfort and safety of women were not high up on the NCAA’s priority list.
WOMEN ARE LOSING THE SPORTS GENDER BATTLE. LET'S HELP THEM WIN THE WAR
We female swimmers were told not to complain and to step aside to make way for the male swimmer celebrating his new female "identity."
Our dreams, our desire for privacy, our voices didn’t matter to the university administrators or the athletic associations. It didn’t matter to the laughably named Women’s Sports Foundation, which has fought to enable men to enter and predictably dominate women’s sports. And it certainly didn’t matter to President Biden or Vice President Harris.
Fortunately, female athletes did matter to people across the country. In fact, brave women and men started speaking out against the injustice that was being done to women. Independent Women spearheaded the creation of the largest and most ideologically diverse women’s movement of our time, called "Our Bodies, Our Sports." We had dedicated allies who are on the political Left and Right, alongside independents and everything in between. This summer, we traveled across the country, hearing from parents and young female athletes and encouraging them to stand up for their rights and to speak out.
That cross-country trip showed that the people—American voters—were with us. They recognized that what we were asking for—fair competition and recognition of biological reality—was simple common sense. Normal people around the country know what a woman is and why we need women’s sports leagues in the first place: Men and women are biologically different, and those differences have consequences for fairness and safety.
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They were horrified to hear about women like my friend Payton McNabb, who as a high school volleyball player, was spiked in the head so hard by a male player that she has permanent brain damage and partial paralysis. They were disgusted to hear hard-working female athletes were having to forfeit games and championships to avoid a competition that was inherently unfair, and even dangerous.
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Fortunately, this blindness to physical reality is at an end. President Trump is standing up for women and female athletes when coaches, college administrators, and sports governing bodies have refused to. He knew it was absurd, unfair, and dangerous to force women to compete against men. He spoke about it consistently on the campaign trail, and pledged to do something about it. Voters heard it and supported him.
And now, just days after taking office, he has made good on this promise. He has told female athletes that their dreams matter. Young girls don’t have to wonder if they are wasting their time training and will be forced into competitions they are doomed to lose because of their sex. They now can feel confident that they will have leagues and rights of their own. On behalf of all these girls, thank you, President Trump, for standing with us.
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