National swimming star Riley Gaines and 15 other female athletes are suing the National Collegiate Athletic Association for allowing transvestites to enter women’s sports and locker rooms.
Gaines, host of the podcast “Gaines for Girls,”
I got it. In X, “The dam is bursting, and the time has come.”
Athletes who have joined the legal battle include All-American swimmer and Olympian Reka György. Kylie Arons is a two-time NCAA champion and 31-time All-American swimmer. soccer and track star Ainsley Elsen; University of Kentucky tennis player Ellie Eads. Roanoke College swimming captains Lily Mullens and Kate Pearson, and teammates Susannah Price, Carter Satterfield, Katie Blankship and Juliana Morrow.
background
The group that ultimately organized the class action lawsuit, the Independent Council for Women in Sport,
letter In January 2023, the NCAA Office of Legal Affairs was notified that “allowing male athletes to participate in women’s teams constitutes illegal discrimination against women based on gender.”
Women’s advocacy groups stressed that the NCAA is not above the law and called on the association to ban men from women’s sports and locker rooms.
In the months that followed, various governors across the country recognized this.
well proven Differences in athletic ability between men and women begged The NCAA Board of Governors has decided to revise its policy regarding cross-dressing student-athletes.
The Icons’ letter and the governor’s pressure clearly weren’t enough to move the NCAA. The 16 female athletes thought the lawsuit might settle.
free press
report He said the lawsuit could affect eligibility rules for the 1,100 colleges represented by the NCAA.
class action lawsuit
The stated goal is
lawsuitThe lawsuit, filed this week in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, says, “We are working with the National Collegiate Athletic Association to ensure that future generations of women are protected from the Title IX promises denied to them and other female college students. The purpose is to provide “guarantee to the public.” Member universities include those that are part of the University System of Georgia. ”
The lawsuit alleges that the NCAA aligns itself with “the most radical elements of the so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion agenda on college campuses” in order to “maintain control over the monetization of college sports” worth billions of dollars. He is accused of doing so. work.
To ensure this beneficial ideological alignment, the NCAA also works with member institutions such as Georgia Tech to suppress the free speech rights of student-athletes who resist or speak out against corruption in women’s sports. The lawsuit alleges that
Part of this crackdown strategy is said to include “what the NCAA calls” coercion.LGBTQ-inclusive code of conduct‘ overview[e] The consequences of homophobic and transphobic behavior. ”
The plaintiffs asked the court to declare the NCAA to be in violation of Title IX and the 14th Amendment.
Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that the NCAA’s eligibility policy regarding cross-dressers is discriminatory and violates Title IX because:
- Allowing men to compete against women in competitions and win prizes designated for women.
- “Depriving women of equal access to separate showers, locker rooms, and associated toilet facilities.”
- “Reducing equal opportunities and resources for women.”
- “Diverting opportunities and resources to men.”
- “Exposing women to loss of privacy and psychological harm.”and
- “Unreasonably affects and suppresses the free speech rights of women who assert their rights, safe spaces, and the reasonable and accurate application of Title IX and the Equal Protection Principles.”
The plaintiffs are seeking a declaration that the University System of Georgia and Georgia Tech are similarly in violation of federal law.
In addition to demanding disclosure and damages, the female athletes are also demanding that the NCAA and other defendants be prohibited from continuing to allow men to participate in women’s sports and from fully enforcing cross-dressing policies. ing.
The plaintiffs also asked that awards, prizes, titles, and trophies won by male athletes, including the swimmer once known as William Thomas, while competing against real women, be annulled and reallocated.
“We’re not just fighting for ourselves, we’re fighting for every young girl who dreams of competing in a sport.” Gaines
Said In a statement.
“This lawsuit against the NCAA is not just about competition, it’s a fight over the very nature of women’s sports,” said Marci Smith, co-founder of Icons and an All-American collegiate swimmer and NCAA national champion swimmer. ” he said.
“We are standing up for justice and the right of female athletes to compete on a level playing field,” Smith continued. “It’s about upholding the tradition of Title IX and ensuring the future of women’s sports is as bright as the past.”
The NCAA stated in one document:
statement “College sports are the premier stage for women’s sports in America, and while the NCAA does not comment on pending litigation, the association and its members continue to promote Title IX,” according to an article obtained by The Hill. and will make an unprecedented investment in women’s sports to ensure fairness in competition in all NCAA Championships. ”
CBS News
I got it. Representatives for the Georgia schools named in the lawsuit said they had not yet received the lawsuit and would not comment.
it’s personal
The lawsuit comes more than a year after Riley Gaines
I have written The girls told NCAA President and former Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker (R) that they had “worked hard and sacrificed so much to get to this moment, and yet they had no choice but to compete in this travesty.” spoke about the “anger and frustration” he experienced.
In his message to Baker, Gaines also emphasized:
scientifically documented Male athletes have a physical advantage over female athletes. The former All-American swimmer saw this dominance first hand when she had to compete against Thomas, who won the NCAA Swimming Championship in 2022.
Blaze News previously reported that Thomas was a middling performer on the Penn men’s swim team until he started taking cross-sex hormones in 2019 and began competing against women.
She then shattered the record set by a real woman in the 500-yard freestyle at the 2022 championships and tied for fifth place with Gaines in the women’s 200 meters the following month.
Thomas’ participation affected many other women besides Gaines, many of whom are plaintiffs in this lawsuit.
For example, Reka Györgyi suggested that it would be impossible to reach the repechage final in 2022 due to Thomas’ participation.
“The final spot was stripped from me because of the NCAA’s decision to field someone who is not biologically female.”
Said He said this in a March 2022 letter to the NCAA. “It hurts me, my team, and the other women in the pool.”
Thomas’ physical superiority wasn’t the only issue for female NCAA athletes. He also brought his imprint, a male appendage, into the women’s locker room.
Kylie Arons, a plaintiff in the case and a former swimmer at North Carolina State University, said:
Said The Free Press said she began changing in a “dim warehouse-cum-utility closet” behind the bleachers to avoid changing with an anatomically correct man at the time.
“I was literally racing against American and Olympic gold medalists and changing in the shed at this elite level of competition,” Arons said. “I felt that my privacy and safety were being violated in the locker room.”
Formerly Gaines
Suspect Thomas reportedly exposed his genitals in front of a real female athlete on at least one occasion.
“I feel exposed,” Caitlin Wheeler told the Free Press as she changed into her racing suit.
“You can’t stand there and put on a suit and a towel at the same time,” Wheeler says. “In my 18-year career, I had never seen a man changing in a locker room. I immediately felt the need to cover up.”
Gaines stressed that Thomas was simply using the rules from the book, saying, “It’s the rules that matter, not Leah Thomas.”
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