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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Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones Celebrates ‘Courage’ of Riley Gaines, Female Athletes Challenging NCAA and Georgia Schools over Trans Competitors

Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones

Georgia Lt. Governor Burt Jones on Friday issued a statement celebrating the “courage” of Riley Gaines and the other plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and a number of Georgia universities.

Jones commended the athletes “for their courage” and demanded the NCAA apologize and reverse course in a statement.

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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

Skrmetti UT

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.

Through its NIL recruitment ban, the NCAA prohibits prospective student-athletes from discussing potential NIL opportunities with schools and collectives prior to enrolling. Specifically, the ban prohibits student-athletes from negotiating with collectives, reviewing NIL offers before making enrollment decisions, and adequately considering the full scope of NIL-related services a school might offer upon enrollment.

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Clint Brewer Says Tennessee’s Lawsuit Against the NCAA ‘Isn’t Just About College Sports’

UT Football

All-star panelist Clint Brewer joined Tuesday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy where he offered his thoughts on Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti’s antitrust lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

Skrmetti joined Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares in filing the lawsuit against the NCAA last week, arguing the organization violates federal antitrust laws with its “anticompetitive restrictions on the ability of current and future student-athletes to benefit from their name, image, and likeness (NIL).”

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NCAA Failed to Establish ‘Clear Guidance and Rules’ Prior to New Allegations Against University of Tennessee, Warns State Rep. Jason Zachary

UT Football

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) reportedly plans to bring a slew of new Name, Image, Likeness (NIL) complaints against the University of Tennessee (UT), prompting a fiery response from Chancellor Donde Plowman in a Tuesday letter to the NCAA. Plowman received the support of Tennessee State Representative Jason Zachary (R-Knoxville), who argued the NCAA failed to create “clear guidance and rules” for institutions to follow.

Zachary wrote in a post to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that the Tennessee General Assembly “worked with institutions across our state to craft strong NIL institution that established the framework” in the state, but the NCAA’s “moving target” made work “very challenging” for lawmakers.

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Riley Gaines, Other Prominent Female Athletes Protest NCAA Convention in Phoenix For Allowing Transgenders in Women’s Sports

Some of the top female athletes in the country, including swimmer Riley Gaines, attended and spoke at a protest Thursday outside the annual National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) convention in downtown Phoenix. Organized by the Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) and numerous other groups, the athletes demanded that the NCAA stop allowing transgender females to compete against women in collegiate sports, and each one spoke about their own experiences.

Gaines opened the event, which took place at the Marvin A. Andrews Plaza outside Phoenix City Hall. Gaines is a 12-time All-American swimmer and IWF ambassador. She said allowing men who identify as women to compete against women “is not progressive, it is regressive. It’s taking us back in time at least half a century. … Title 9 was enacted and enforced to protect women and girls, not men who want to be like us.” She repeated a line featured on the signs the women held, “We have come too far to be erased.”

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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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Tennessee Joining Lawsuit Against NCAA

The state of Tennessee, via Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, announced Thursday that it is joining six other states in an antitrust lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

The lawsuit, according to Skrmetti’s office, challenges the NCAA’s student-athlete transfer eligibility rule, which currently states that athletes who transfer from one Division I school to another must sit out of competition for one season before they can resume playing. 

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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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Athlete Riley Gaines Tells Group in Native Sumner County That the Issue is Not Just Fairness in Sports

HENDERSONVILLE, Tennessee – Riley Gaines, a 12-time All-American swimmer for the University of Kentucky turned women’s sports advocate, told a group in her native Sumner County that the issue is not just a matter of fairness in sports but one of freedom of speech and denying objective truths.

Gaines spoke at the monthly meeting of the Sumner County Constitutional Republicans (SCCR), which moved across the road to the Beech Cumberland Church from its usual meeting location at the Shackle Island Fire Rescue building, due to the crowd size numbering well over 100.

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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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Pennsylvania ACLU Organizes Petition in Favor of Trans Athletes

A far-left nonprofit is advocating against a bill passed by the Pennsylvania House of Representatives that says transgender athletes must participate in athletic competition based on their sex at birth.

“Transgender people want to participate in athletics for the same reasons as their peers: to challenge themselves, improve fitness, and be part of a team. Banning trans students from participation in athletics is cruel and discriminatory,” the Pennsylvania ACLU said in a petition on its website. 

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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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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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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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New Bill Will Fix Problems Within the NCAA, Tennessee Rep. David Kustoff Says

Representative David Kustoff (R-TN-08) this week filed legislation that, if enacted into law, would create due process protections for individuals and universities under investigation by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for rule infractions. Representative Burgess Owens (R-UT-04) and Representative Josh Harder (D-CA-10) are co-sponsoring the legislation, according to a press release.

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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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Florida Board of Governors Sets Rules for Athlete Compensation

Florida Gators

The Florida Board of Governors (BOG) established a set of regulations designed to assist in the implementation for collegiate athlete compensation in Florida’s universities. According to the standards, athletes will be able to hire agents but will have to disclose contracts and payments to their university.

These measures were taken by the BOG due to a bill signed into law last year by Governor Ron DeSantis allowing college athletes to profit from their name, image, and likeness, and will take effect July 1.

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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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DeSantis Wants Bill Banning Chemical Castration of Minors

In a Monday interview with Daily Caller, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) continued to bolster his chops as a social conservative, saying he would happily sign a bill preventing doctors from prescribing sex-changing hormone treatments to children. 

“I’m very much opposed to chemical castration of minors, I honestly didn’t know this existed until a few years ago,” DeSantis said during the interview. “That would be something I would sign for sure.” 

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NCAA Threatens to Pull Competitions Out of Florida over Women’s Sports Act

The NCAA is threatening to pull key competitions and championships out of Florida since Governor Ron DeSantis signed the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act” yesterday. The new law prohibits transgender women from competing in high school and collegiate women’s athletics.

“In Florida, girls are going to play girls sports and boys are going to play boys sports,” DeSantis said, speaking at a private school in Jacksonville.

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Defiant DeSantis Signs Bill That Bans Transgender Girls from Girls Sports

Women playing lacrosse

A defiant Gov. Ron DeSantis Tuesday signed a bill banning transgender girls – biological boys – from competing in girls sports. 

“At a bill signing event at the Trinity Christian Academy in Jacksonville, DeSantis touted the ban as a way to protect the integrity of women’s and girls’ sports,” Tampa Bay Times reported, describing the bill as “controversial.”

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New Tennessee Law Allows College Athletes to Profit from Sponsorships, Endorsements

Tennessee will allow its college athletes to be compensated for any use of their name, image, and likeness (NIL), beginning next January. Governor Bill Lee signed the bill into law on Tuesday.

Current NCAA rules don’t allow college athletes to receive NIL compensation from opportunities like sponsorships or endorsements. That’s because the NCAA requires college athletes to maintain “amateur athletic status.” In addition to prohibiting compensation based on NIL, college athletes are prohibited from receiving additional compensation for competition, training expense funds, or prize money from competing. The NCAA also doesn’t allow college athletes to be represented or marketed by agents or other professionals.

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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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Report: Former Tennessee Titans Great Eddie George Named Head Coach at Tennessee State

Tennessee State Tigers fans are abuzz with word from The Stadium Network that former Tennessee Titans great Eddie George will be taking over as the head coach of the FCS program after the end of the spring season this year.

Stadium reporter Brett McMurphy broke the story Sunday afternoon, tweeting, “Former Tennessee Titans RB Eddie George will be new coach at Tennessee State, sources told @Stadium. TSU, currently coached by Rod Reed, plays Southeast Missouri today in final game of spring. George, who has no coaching experience, is 1st major hire by AD Mikki Allen”

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Transcript of Tennessee Education Lottery Board Meeting Suggests Action 24/7 Suspension Made in Haste

Several members of the Tennessee Education Lottery (TEL) Corporation’s Board of Directors, while driving in their vehicles,  decided to temporarily take away Action 24/7’s operating license.

Some board members were on spring break.

And TEL board members took this action while taking the word of an investigator who said the company didn’t follow through on the necessary security protocols.

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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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University of Minnesota Will Cut Only Men’s Sports Due to COVID Financial Strains, Cites Title IX

The University of Minnesota (UMN) announced Thursday that it will cut four men’s sports due to pandemic-induced financial strains. Men’s indoor/outdoor track and field, gymnastics, and tennis will be cut after the 2020-21 competition season.
Comparatively, the women’s indoor/outdoor track and field, gymnastics, and tennis lost more money than the men’s teams: $4.8 million versus $3.4 million. Other women’s sports cost the school more. Women’s basketball, gymnastics, hockey, swim and dive, and volleyball alone totaled about $14 million in the red. 

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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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Male Women’s Track Champion Says Female Competitors Actually Have Advantage

by Peter Hasson   The male track athlete who won an NCAA women’s national championship denies having an unfair advantage over female runners. “If anything, me competing against cisgender females is a disadvantage because my body is going through so many medical implications, like it’s going through biochemistry changes,” Franklin Pierce University runner CeCe Telfer told ESPN’s “Outside The Lines” in a feature that aired Thursday. "If anything, me competing against cisgender females is a disadvantage.."@FPUathletics track star CeCe Telfer talks about the physical challenges she faces while competing as a transgender woman. pic.twitter.com/9VhlOVA70V — Outside The Lines (@OTLonESPN) June 13, 2019 “So being on hormone replacement therapy, your muscle depletion, your muscle is deteriorating, you lose a lot of strength because testosterone is where you get your strength and agility and all that athletic stuff, so I have to work twice as hard to keep that strength,” Telfer said in the interview. “And if I slack a day that’s like three days set behind.” Telfer, a biological male who identifies as a transgender woman, won the NCAA DII women’s 400-meter hurdles championship last month, besting the second place finisher by more than a second. Telfer previously ran a variety…

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