House Republicans Pledge To Protect Women’s Sports In Event Honoring National Girls And Women In Sports Day

Image CreditVictoria Marshall

Washington, D.C. — Protecting women’s sports is a top priority for House Republicans now that they’ve secured the majority, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said at a panel held in honor of National Girls and Women in Sports Day at the U.S. Capitol.

“This is not a partisan issue, this is a fairness issue,” McCarthy stated.

Allowing biological boys to compete in women’s sports is wokeness at its worst. It is a way to erase women. It can prevent them from being champions and excelling in sports. https://t.co/uOpkxBsHqY

— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) February 1, 2023

The panel included the Speaker, Congresswoman Jen Kiggans, R-FL, former NCAA champion swimmer and Stand With Women spokesperson Riley Gains. Former NCAA athlete Macy Petty and Young Women For America Ambassador Margo Knorr were also present. Gains also hosted a second panel, which featured Congresswomen Virginia Foxx and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R–GA), and Lisa McClain(R–MI).

In the first panel, participants talked about their experience being sidelined by men in their respective sports and how they want to bring awareness to the issue so women’s sports can be protected.

“If we, as female athletes, aren’t willing to stick up for ourselves, how can we expect someone else to stick up for us,” Gains spoke to the panel. Gains competed on the University of Kentucky women’s swim team, and during her senior year, she tied with biological male Lia Thomas at the NCAA Championships.

“It was at this moment that I realized that not only were we being forced to compete against biological men, change in the locker room with biological men — who, keep in mind, were fully intact with male genitalia … I realized that we as female athletes were being sidelined to men and reduced to a photo op.”

Petty spoke about her experience competing with biological men for scholarships during college recruitment.

“These sports reflect our bodies, right?” Petty asked. “Men and women’s sports are separated for a reason, and that reason has nothing to do with ideology or identity but by biology and how we were designed and how we were created.”

Despite their concerns and despite their protests, the NCAA has yet to do anything for female athletes or address their complaints about the inclusion in female spaces of biological men.

“No one has asked us how we felt,” Gains said. “We exist to validate a male’s identity.”

Virginia Foxx, Congresswoman, speaks at a panel moderated jointly by Riley Gains and Marjorie Taylor Greene.

The second panel featured all three Congresswomen who championed the cause. The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports ActA bill that would ban colleges from allowing male biological athletes to compete in women’s athletic events. The bill was introduced by Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) in 2021.

“I’m appalled at what is being pushed,” Foxx addressed the panel. “I think it’s important that women have the same opportunities that men