(The Center Square) – In light of the Biden administration's recent changes to Title IX to allow transgender males to participate in female sports, Michigan U.S. Senate candidate Mike Rogers held a roundtable discussion Monday featuring women sports advocates and athletes.
“Title IX has been here for 50 years, with the sole purpose to allow women to have equal opportunity to compete in sports,” Rogers said. “It was designed to give women opportunity, and what they’re doing to these women is taking that opportunity away.”
The original Title IX prohibited discrimination based on sex. New regulations expanded the prohibition to include sexual orientation and gender identity, which Rogers and other Republicans have denounced as unfair and dangerous to women.
“It is not about judgement of those people–it is not about the LGBTQ community,” Rogers said. “It’s about fairness to women.”
Former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines started by sharing her experiences with transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, a woman-identifying male who swam in the women’s 2022 NCAA Division 1 championship meet. Gaines and Thompson tied for fifth place in the 200-yard freestyle race, but Thompson was named the winner.
“I got to personally witness and really feel the effect that this infringement had–as it pertained to the unfair competition, the locker room, the silencing that we faced,” Gaines said. “It’s important that we get leaders in the position to make effective and lasting change.”
Paula Scanlan, a former teammate of Thomas at the University of Pennsylvania, said her school’s antagonistic response to the girls’ concerns about fairness and privacy made her decide to publicly speak out.
“Upon Thomas joining our women’s team, he broke every single record in every single event that we swam. He also went on to become an NCAA champion,” Scanlan said. “And in this experience, we were told that we had to accept him as a woman, and if we did anything that objected to that or hurt his identity–however they deemed that to be the case–we were the problem.”
She talked about how uncomfortable the girls felt having to undress with Thomas – who had not undergone any gender modification surgeries – in the same locker room for eighteen weeks.
“We tried to raise our concerns to the athletic department,” Scanlan said. “They brought in a bunch of administrators, they brought in a bunch of people from the LGBT center, and they lectured us about how this is the new Civil Rights movement, and if we don’t get on board, it would be equivalent to not wanting to get undressed with someone because of their race.”
The administrators told the girls that if they continued to disagree, they should seek the school’s psychological services.
“We were being told that we were the issue, and that all of our feelings were invalid,” Scanlan said.
“It’s these situations where us women are forced to accommodate these males–it’s not about us, it’s about them,” Gaines said. “The Biden-Harris administration, the message that they are sending is that a man’s feelings being hurt matters more than a woman actually being physically hurt.”
The roundtable also featured former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, who blasted the current administration’s actions.
“As someone who’s had to deal with the Title IX regulation…It really is not complicated. Title IX was passed to protect women, and to give women equal opportunities,” DeVos said. “What the Biden-Harris administration has done–putting the demands of the woke far left ahead of the needs of women and girls–is simply inexcusable.”
Other women athletes from Michigan shared their personal experiences and opinions as well.
Addy Stiverson, a sophomore on her high school’s track team, said underperforming male athletes shouldn’t be joining female teams as a way to win sports awards.
“I’m not saying that if they aren't good enough and if they aren't winning they shouldn’t be playing at all. But they shouldn't be taking away our achievements,” Stiverson said.
Maddie Krappmann, an incoming high school senior who plays Division 2 volleyball, agreed.
“A man can just come in and have their mediocrity rewarded. Even though they haven't put in that work, they just get to come in here and grab that title,” said Krappmann. “They’re mediocre, and these women are excellent. And that rewarding of mediocrity is something that should be shunned everywhere, but especially in athletics, when every day you’re expected to pull yourself to your highest standard. These men don't have to do that.”
Rogers signed the Stand with Women Commitment, a project of Independent Women’s Voice, which reads “I promise to uphold laws that preserve female opportunities and private spaces.”
Rogers’ Democrat opponent, Rep. Elissa Slotkin, voiced support for the Title IX changes, saying they will help prevent discrimination against LGBTQ students.
Gaines said that it’s female athletes who are discriminated against under such policies, with competition opportunities and scholarships for women going to transgender athletes instead, as well as safety concerns on and off the field.
“We’re just saying something that is so basic,” Gaines said. “Everyone knows it, but no one wants to admit it.”
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