Education Secretary Miguel Cardona refused to define what a woman is during a committee meeting this week.
“I’m here to talk about the budget and if you’d have a question about the budget, I’d be happy to respond,” he said, in part.
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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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Wisconsin lawmakers passed a series of bills on Thursday that ban doctors from performing sex change surgeries on minors and bar male athletes from participating in women’s sports, according to the Cap Times.
The package contains three bills, two of which prohibit biological men from competing in girls’ K-12 sports and women’s collegiate sports, while the third would cause a physician to lose their medical license if they perform a sex change surgery or administer puberty blockers to a minor, according to the texts. The Wisconsin Assembly passed the package, sending the bills to the Senate for final approval before heading to Democratic Gov. Tony Evers’ desk, who has said he would veto the legislation, the Cap Times reported.
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Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt (R) signed an executive order Tuesday that clearly defines male-female sex based on the biological reproductive system.
A press statement from Stitt’s office said he is the “first governor to issue an executive order to boldly stand with women.”
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Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (R) signed two bills Wednesday, one that blocks biological males from competing in women’s sports and another that protects minors from experimental transgender drug treatments and surgeries.
“Today, in an effort to protect the integrity of female sports and Missouri children from potentially harmful experimental surgeries and treatment, I have signed Senate Bill (SB) 39 and SB 49 into law,” Parson posted to Twitter.
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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit heard arguments Tuesday in Soule v. Connecticut Association of Schools in which four female athletes assert that the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference’s (CIAC) policy that allows males to compete in girls’ athletic competitions based on gender identity not only “create[s] an unfair playing field for female athletes,” but also “reverses nearly 50 years of athletic advances for women.”
Selina Soule, Chelsea Mitchell, Alanna Smith, and Ashley Nicoletti – all dedicated elite athletes from Connecticut – have all trained hard “for the personal satisfaction of victory, an opportunity to participate in state and regional meets, and a chance to earn a college scholarship,” according to Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), their legal representatives.
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PHOENIX, Arizona – The Arizona Department of Education (ADE) held a press conference Wednesday detailing a new filing submitted in the lawsuit surrounding Arizona’s law, the “Save Women’s Sports Act,” that prevents biological males from competing against women in school sports.
“This case turns on one crucial fact: can plaintiffs prove that pre-puberty boys have no sports advantage over girls? They cannot,” according to the brief shared with reporters.
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Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) joined Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) and other GOP senators Tuesday in a public comment to Biden Education Secretary Miguel Cardona that opposes the department’s proposed rule to expand Title IX to allow biological males to compete in women’s sports, and specifically points out how the rule will undermine the original intention of Title IX.
The education department’s proposed rule, titled “Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Sex in Education Programs or Activities Receiving Federal Financial Assistance: Sex-Related Eligibility Criteria for Male and Female Athletic Teams” was published in the Federal Register on April 6.
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The Arizona Department of Education (ADE) announced Thursday it had filed a motion in court to have the venue of a lawsuit against the enforcement of an Arizona law changed from Tucson to Phoenix.
“Crucially, counsel for the parties are located in Phoenix. Even Plaintiffs are represented by local counsel in Phoenix, as is counsel for Superintendent [Tom] Horne. The result is that all of the Arizona lawyers are located in Phoenix, none are located in Tucson. That makes an overwhelming difference in the expense to the parties in litigating this case,” according to the motion, emailed to reporters.
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Pennsylvania’s House of Representatives this week passed a bill supporters tout as protecting LGBTQ individuals from discrimination but which many expect to impact women’s sports, healthcare providers, and religious schools.
The bill passed 102-98, nearly along party lines, in the almost evenly divided House. Among Republicans, only Representatives Aaron Kaufer (R-Luzerne) and Alec Ryncavage (R-Nanticoke) supported the bill which advocates call the “Fairness Act.” Representative Frank Burns (D-Johnstown) cast the sole Democratic vote against the measure.
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House Republicans voted Thursday to pass the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act,” the latest salvo in the ongoing battle over transgender athletes.
The legislation would ban schools that receive federal funding, which is nearly all schools, from allowing biological males to compete in sports designated for women and girls.
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A new bill has passed in the Wyoming state legislature forbidding biological men from competing in women’s sports, thus making Wyoming the 19th state in the country to pass such legislation.
Breitbart reports that the bill will become law without the signature of Governor Mark Gordon (R-Wyo.), who refused to veto it but also would not sign it. In a letter to Secretary of State Chuck Gray (R-Wyo.), Gordon described the legislation as “discriminatory” and “overly draconian.” Gordon also claimed that the bill “pays little attention to fundamental principles of equality.”
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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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The Ohio state House of Representatives failed to pass a bill that would have banned transgender athletes from competing in sports outside of their biological gender, despite passing the Ohio state Senate only hours before.
The bill was first introduced in the House in June by Rep. Jena Powell and originally included a line requiring athletes to undergo a physical exam to determine their biological gender, according to FOX 8. During a 2 a.m. vote, the House failed to pass the bill after the state Senate included it in Senate bill 178, which stripped the State Board of Education of significant powers and gave control of educational policy enforcement to the governor Wednesday, according to the Columbus Dispatch.
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Georgia Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate Herschel Walker blasts allowing biological men to compete against women in sports in a new runoff election campaign ad that features former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines.
Gaines tied with transgender athlete Lia Thomas for fifth place in the women’s 200-yard freestyle finals during this year’s NCAA championships, but was not awarded the fifth-place trophy.
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From the feminist Women’s Liberation Front to the conservative Child & Parental Rights Campaign and Parents Defending Education, groups opposing the Biden administration’s proposal to redefine sex as “gender identity” are urging supporters to file comments in the Title IX regulatory proceeding before it closes Monday.
An 18-month-old nonprofit unexpectedly joined their ranks last week: the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR), cofounded by black intellectuals including Columbia University’s John McWhorter and Brown University’s Glenn Loury, which fights identity politics in education and government and has focused mainly on race.
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The Biden administration is determined to undermine the science of biology in order to prop up an activist political agenda that will serve up a manufactured concept of limitless “genders” with a side order of government-approved child grooming opportunities.
The proposed Title IX rule, announced in June by Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, is designed to overturn the Trump administration’s desire to continue enforcement of Title IX’s protections for girls and women in education. Former President Donald Trump also ensured due process rights protections for those students accused of sexual misconduct.
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The Indiana state legislature banned biologically male athletes from playing on women’s sports at public schools on Tuesday, overriding Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb’s veto on the legislation.
HEA 1041, set to go into effect July 1, requires public schools designate sports categories by sex and the genetics of the athletes. Holcomb originally vetoed HEA 1041 in March 2022, arguing at the time that the bill did not offer “one consistent state policy regarding the fairness in K-12 sports in Indiana.”
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According to Friday reports, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) was censored by Facebook for a post about biological males playing women’s sports.
“Biological men have no place in women’s sports,” Blackburn reportedly said on the social media giant, linking to a fundraising page.
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Kentucky legislators banned males from women’s sports and restricted abortions Wednesday, overriding the Democratic governor’s veto.
Lawmakers overrode Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of Senate Bill 83, which bars males from participating in girls’ sports from elementary through secondary education. Beshear preferred a policy allowing males to compete in girls’ sports if they underwent certain medical sex change treatments rather than an outright ban, he explained in his April 7 veto letter.
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A pair of bills that essentially prohibit biological males from competing in women’s Local Education Association and Collegiate sports continue to advance through the Tennessee General Assembly legislative process.
SB1861, sponsored by State Senator Joey Hensley (R-Hohenwald), was overwhelmingly approved by both the chambers in the Tennessee General Assembly. SB2153, also sponsored by Hensley, was overwhelmingly passed in the state Senate, 27-4, and is scheduled to be considered by the House Finance, Ways, and Means Committee on Tuesday, April 19.
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South Carolina’s Republican-dominated House passed legislation Tuesday banning males from women’s sports despite Democrats’ stall tactics.
Democrats attempted to delay the vote by proposing an estimated 1,000 amendments, according to the Associated Press. Debate on the amendments Tuesday lasted eight hours, with Democrats proposing measures such as renaming the bill the “Discrimination Capital of the United States Act,” allowing high schools to opt out of the requirements and only allowing school bands to perform at girls’ sporting events.
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The White House dodged a question on transgender participation in college sports during Monday’s press briefing.
Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy asked White House press secretary Jen Psaki if the Biden administration thought it was fair that biological males are now competing against women in college sports.
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Obviously, a multitude of factors are at play, but if you had to pick one man most responsible for the massive increase in crime of all sorts in American cities over the past few years, from pervasive looting to assault (sexual or otherwise) to murder, it would be billionaire investor George Soros.
Through his Open Society Foundations—described as “the world’s largest private funder of independent groups working for justice, democratic governance, and human rights”—plus various other entities, sub-entities, and cutouts, Soros has financed the political campaigns of numerous district attorneys and attorneys general across the country.
All of them were leftists, working from a principle of minimal, if any, incarceration or bail in any but the most extreme situations—and often in what most of would assume was extreme. The perpetrator, most probably, they assume, is the product of a miserable childhood, and therefore worthy of more sympathy than the victim. That many who had equally miserable childhoods still are able to function as law-abiding adults is evidently of little consequence to these DAs and AGs.
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On Monday, the Republican governor of Indiana vetoed a bill that would ban so-called “transgenders” from competing in sports for the opposite gender.
As reported by ABC News, Governor Eric Holcomb (R-Ind.) vetoed the bill, HEA 1041, after it passed through both houses of the state legislature, despite previously voicing his support for the same bill last month. In his veto, Holcomb claimed that the bill “falls short” of implementing a policy that would be consistent at the statewide level, and thus would not be able to provide “fairness in K-12 sports.”
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In celebration of Women’s History Month, colleges and universities are hosting events to celebrate womxn, not women.
In an effort to become more inclusive of those that deny biological reality, higher education is in fact erasing women’s opportunities to excel in academics, athletics, and career tracks.
I am proud to be a woman. Women have been pivotal to our society. But making women compete with men undermines females’ ability to achieve success.
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On Mar. 3, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds signed House Bill 2416, which bars men from competing against women in sports at “all school levels.”
“The bill also requires that only female students, based on their sex, may participate in any team, sport, or athletic event designated as being for females, women, or girls,” the new legislation reads.
“This is a victory for girls’ sports in Iowa,” Reynolds said on Mar. 3, surrounded by a room of female athletes as the bill was officially enacted. “No amount of talent, training or effort can make up for the natural physical advantages males have over females. It’s simply a reality of human biology.”
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A Tennessee legislator has filed a bill prohibiting LEAs or public charter schools from doing business with entities that perform abortions.
This is the latest Pro-Life bill to be proposed during the current Tennessee General Assembly Session.
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Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed (R-TN-89) State Representative Justin Lafferty to the newsmakers line to weigh in on the bill banning biological male athletes from women’s sports and his top legislative priorities for 2022.
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Two Tennessee Republican legislators have filed companion bills banning biological males from competing in women’s collegiate sports.
State Senator Joey Hensley (R-Hohenwald-SD28) and Representative John Ragan (R-Oak Ridge-HD33) filed SB1862 and HB1894 on Thursday. Senator Hensley is a physician who achieved his M.D. at the University of Tennessee-Memphis.
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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommended that sports organizations allow biologically male, transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports without lowering their testosterone levels.
The IOC stated that no athlete should be excluded from competition based on unverified, alleged or perceived unfair competitive advantage due to biological sex in a Tuesday report. The report says athletes should compete in sports based on their self-determined gender identity and should not be subject to “targeted testing” to determine biological sex.
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The battle to “Save Women’s Sports” resulted in a slew of legislation banning biological males from girls’ sports and conversations on the national stage about gender, sex, individual dignity, and much more. Now the advocacy groups behind this push are assembling to battle the next burgeoning culture war issue — transgender sex change surgeries and procedures for minors.
Progressive activists, media, lawmakers, and even some medical professionals call such procedures “gender affirming medical care” and protest that denying an individual this “care” is cruel, regardless of age. Republican Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson vetoed the state’s SAFE Act in April, arguing that the legislation was a “vast government overreach” and that it shouldn’t jump into every ethical issue.
But advocacy groups like the Family Policy Alliance (FPA) insist these procedures irrevocably hurt children. And backed by a network of about 40 independent, state-based family policy councils, FPA aims to multiply the number of states across the nation that legally protect children from gender transition.
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Wednesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed 400-meter runner and Team USA member Cynthia Monteleone to the newsmakers line to talk about running against transgender males and what she’s doing to fight it.
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“We’re not often heard,” Cynthia Monteleone told a trio of female senators Thursday afternoon on Capitol Hill. “Though we are just three of thousands that this is happening to.”
Monteleone is a world champion track athlete who competed against a transgender competitor in the 2018 World Masters Athletics Championships in Málaga, Spain. Dressed in a white pantsuit with a fresh tropical flower tucked behind her ear, she spent Wednesday and Thursday urging Republican lawmakers to fight back against biological males competing in women’s sports.
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A biologically male middle school student may run on a girl’s cross country team this fall in spite of West Virginia’s new law banning biological males from women’s sports, U.S. Circuit Judge Joseph R. Goodwin ruled Wednesday.
Lawyers from the ACLU-West Virginia had argued that HB 3293 would unfairly prevent the 11-year-old student, Becky Pepper-Jackson, from participating on a girls cross country team.
Goodwin issued a preliminary injunction Wednesday allowing Pepper-Jackson to “sign up for and participate in school athletics in the same way as her girl classmates.”
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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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Democratic Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards vetoed a bill Tuesday that would have banned biological males from women’s sports.
“As I have said repeatedly when asked about this bill, discrimination is not a Louisiana value, and this bill was a solution in search of a problem that simply does not exist in Louisiana,” the governor said in a statement, according to the Associated Press, adding that “even the author of the bill acknowledged throughout the legislative session that there wasn’t a single case where this was an issue” in Louisiana.
Louisiana’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act would have prohibited biological males from participating in female intercollegiate, interscholastic, or intramural athletic sports “that receive state funding.”
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Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Tuesday banning biological males from women’s sports.
The Fairness in Women’s Sports Act prohibits biological males from participating in athletic teams or sports designated for female students and requires that a student’s school or institution “request a certain health examination and consent form or other statement from the student’s health care provider to verify the student’s biological sex under certain circumstances.”
“The Fairness in Women’s Sports Act will empower Florida women & girls to be able to compete on a level playing field,” DeSantis tweeted Tuesday. “This will help ensure that opportunities for things like college scholarships will be protected for female athletes for years to come.”
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President Joe Biden’s administration and the Department of Justice are reportedly preparing to challenge bills banning biological males from women’s sports, multiple sources told the Daily Beast.
“We are having conversations with the Biden administration about additional actions that they should be taking as it relates to anti-LGBTQ bills that we’re seeing in these states,” Human Rights Campaign (HRC) president Alphonso David told the Daily Beast. “But we want to make sure we don’t lose sight of how important those words are, and how important his early actions have been to support and protect LGBTQ people throughout the country.”
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The governor of Kansas has vetoed a bill that would have banned biological males from participating in women’s sports.
Democratic Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly vetoed the “The Fairness in Women’s Sports Act” Thursday, saying in a news release that the legislation “sends a devastating message that Kansas is not welcoming to all children and their families, including those who are transgender — who are already at a higher risk of bullying, discrimination, and suicide,” according to local outlet KMBC.
“As Kansans, we should be focused on how to include all students in extracurricular activities rather than how to exclude those who may be different than us,” Kelly said. “Kansas is an inclusive state and our laws should reflect our values. This law does not do that.”
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The governor of West Virginia signaled that he will not veto a bill banning biological males from women’s sports.
Republican West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice discussed HB 3293 during a coronavirus briefing Wednesday saying that he would either “let it become law or sign it,” according to The Hill. The governor also said that he would “absolutely not” veto the bill, the publication reported.
“From the standpoint of how I feel about it personally… I just can’t possibly get through my head that it is the right thing for us at a middle school level or a high school level in our state for me not to support the bill,” Justice said, according to the Hill. “So, I do support the bill.”
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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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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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Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson (R-Ark.) signed a bill into law on Thursday that banned so-called “transgender” athletes from competing in sports for women and girls, as reported by ABC News.
Hutchinson’s office released a statement addressing the new law, declaring that “this law simply says that female athletes should not have to compete in a sport against a student of the male sex when the sport is designed for women’s competition…I agree with the intention of this law. This will help promote and maintain fairness in women’s sporting events.”
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Mississippi Republican Gov. Tate Reeves signed a bill into law Thursday barring transgender athletes in public schools and colleges from competing in women’s sports.
The bill, SB 2536, is the first of such legislation to be signed into law this year, though similar initiatives have appeared in other states across the country. South Dakota’s Senate sent a similar bill to the desk of Republican Gov. Kristi Noem on Monday.
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Friday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Memphis Tennessee State Represenative Mark White to the newsmakers line to discuss his background and how Tennessee will respond to the transgender sports executive order.
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Responding to a bill in the Tennessee Legislature that would ban transgender individuals from participating in girls’ middle school and high school athletics, Gov. Bill Lee said Wednesday that trans participation would “destroy women’s sports.”
Speaking to reporters at the state Capitol on Wednesday, Lee stopped short of voicing support for a Tennessee bill that would prohibit trans students from participating in middle and high school girls’ athletics, but he spoke to the issue.
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Months after we celebrated the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage, one of President Biden’s first actions marks a drastic setback for women across this country. The President’s Executive Order instructs the Department of Education to allow transgender women – biological men who identify as women – to compete in women’s sports. Federally funded institutions are now being forced to allow biological men access to women’s sports and scholarships meant for women in sports. This move erodes the foundations of Title IX, is unfair to women, and is a massive overreach by the Federal government.
Congress passed Title IX in 1972 to help break the glass ceiling for women, but President Biden’s Executive Order reinstates that very glass ceiling. Title IX was predicated on the fact that the biological makeup of males and females differ dramatically. That’s the reason Congress passed this important legislation – to grant women fair access to federal funding for sports and academics. Prior to Title IX, only 1 in 27 women played varsity sports, but today nearly half of girls participate in varsity sports. Before Title IX only 32,000 women competed in college sports, now 150,000 women do. Prior to Title IX athletic scholarships were virtually non-existent, now there are nearly 10,000 athletic scholarships for women.
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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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American Principles Project and SPRY Strategies released polling results this week from 10 presidential election battleground states. In the July 2020 survey, on average 74.8 percent of voters said, “No” and only 25.2 percent said, “Yes” when asked: “Should boys and men who say they identify as transgender be allowed to compete in girls’ and women’s athletics?”
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