Protestors hoping to ‘save women’s sports’ plan to rally outside the NCAA’s annual convention and demand an end to transgender athletes competing in female events.
The rally will include former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines and former UPenn swimmer Paula Scanlan – a teammate of trans athlete Lia Thomas – as well as many parents, students and activists from both conservative and ‘liberal feminist’ organizations.
Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com, Scanlan said she and her allies are fighting for dignity in their chosen sports.
‘As a survivor of sexual assault, I was forced to undress in front of a man every day before getting in the pool at Penn,’ she said. ‘The NCAA sponsored this repeat trauma through its failure to recognize women’s sports. We beg the NCAA to give women our dignity back.’
The topic has divided the U.S. for the past several years, with critics saying transgender athletes have an advantage over cisgender women in competition and at least 23 states passing laws to create space in sports only for a person’s gender assigned at birth.
However, the Independent Women’s Forum is among the groups who claim the NCAA is not doing anything to protect women under new president and former Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker.
Groups hoping to ‘save women’s sports’ plan to rally outside the NCAA’s annual convention this week with demands to end what they call discriminatory practices allowing transgender people to compete with cisgender women
UPenn swimmer Paula Scanlan (pictured) said she and her allies are fighting for dignity in their chosen sports. ‘As a survivor of sexual assault, I was forced to undress in front of a man every day before getting in the pool at Penn,’ she said. ‘The NCAA sponsored this repeat trauma through its failure to recognize women’s sports. We beg the NCAA to give women our dignity back’
Lia Thomas triggered a wave of controversy after switching over to the women’s team at UPenn in 2021
The Independent Women’s Forum will march at the 2nd annual ‘Our Bodies, Our Sports’ rally on Thursday at the NCAA Convention in Phoenix.
Over a dozen groups representing women’s interests will join Independent Women’s Forum in Phoenix, including Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS), Women’s Liberation Front, Women’s Declaration International-USA, Women’s Sports Policy Working Group, Champion Women, and Concerned Women for America.
Scanlan, who began swimming at the age of eight, is motivated to raise awareness about transwomen competing in female divisions.
She used to swim at the University of Pennsylvania alongside Thomas whose participation in female events ignited fierce debate about athletes competing as a different sex to the one they were born.
Scanlan even confessed to having nightmares for weeks after they were made to share a changing room.
The rally will have a ‘We Won’t Back Down’ theme which organizers told DailyMail.com will reflect ‘the determination of female athletes and coaches’ to force the NCAA to act.
They hope to send a demand letter to Baker that includes revoking the NCAA’s Transgender Student-Athlete Participation Policy, which allows for trans student-athletes to compete as they wish based on testosterone levels.
Thomas set seven UPenn women’s teams records (five individual) and won three individual events at the Ivy League Championships in February 2022
The rally will include former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, possibly the most prominent activist for women’s spaces in sports
The rally will have a ‘We Won’t Back Down’ theme that organizers told DailyMail.com will reflect ‘the determination of female athletes and coaches’ to force the NCAA to act
Gaines, possibly the most prominent activist for women’s spaces in sports who has spoken across the country and in Congress, says the rally is about dignity for student-athletes.
‘Female athletes work our entire lives to compete in sports, only to have the NCAA destroy our even playing field. This devalues female athletes and women in general,’ she said.
‘Sex-based categories are important for competitive sports just like age classifications and weight categories. We are asking very little of the NCAA. Maintain the fairness necessary for competition and safety.’
A spokeswoman for the forum said the NCAA has placed challenges ahead of their rally this year, obtaining a permit to block off the road in front of and surrounding the convention center.
They said they saw a sign of their power last year when the NCAA had to send out a memo saying everyone was ‘safe’ from their rally.
However, organizers said they’ll be surrounding the site with LED trucks, people with walking banners, double-sided rally signs, shirts, hats in an attempt to stop the NCAA’s discrimination.
They’ve turned their ire toward Baker, the ex-Republican Governor of Massachusetts who took over the NCAA last March, and whom the IWF says refuses to listen to them.
‘We’ve had so many athletes writing letters to Charlie Baker, who testified before the Senate in October saying he has talked to thousands of student-athletes. Well, he hasn’t taken the time to talk to any of the female athletes like Riley and Paula who are speaking out against the NCAA’s policy,’ Vice President of Communications Victoria Coley told DailyMail.com.
Protesters have turned their ire toward Charlie Baker, the ex-Republican Governor of Massachusetts who took over the NCAA last March, and whom the IWF says refuses to listen to them
A spokeswoman for the forum said the NCAA has placed challenges ahead of their rally this year, obtaining a permit to block off the road in front of and surrounding the convention center
The IWF said they’ll surround the Phoenix Convention Center with LED trucks, people with walking banners, double-sided rally signs, shirts, hats in an attempt to stop the NCAA’s discrimination
DailyMail.com has reached out to the NCAA for comment.
The forum says they’ve made a ton of progress in the year since their last rally, including the outrage stoked by swimmers at Virginia’s Roanoke College, where athletes held a press conference after being forced to swim with a transgender woman.
‘Progress is we’re growing in numbers and Charlie Baker sees the writing on the wall,’ said Coley, adding that she believes Baker’s predecessor, Mark Emmert, agrees with their cause.
‘Someone will stand up for women and the integrity of women’s sports. If women have to keep calling out the blatant discrimination, somebody will stand with women and make change. Charlie Baker has a real opportunity to be a hero. Our coalition wants to help, and we have been asking for a private meeting,’ Coley added.
‘There are people on the governing board of the NCAA who are with us, it’s just a matter of them being strong enough leaders.’
The NCAA has permitted transgender athletes to compete since 2010.
Under the current NCAA rules, a person must complete 12 months of testosterone suppression treatment, and submit serum testosterone test results showing levels below the maximum for the sport.
‘Shame on Charlie Baker for continuing to enforce this discriminatory policy,’ said Jennifer C. Braceras, vice president for Legal Policy at Independent Women’s Form and founder of Independent Women’s Law Center.
The group says they’ve made a ton of progress in the year since their last rally
The group says they’ve made a ton of progress in the year since their last rally, including the outrage fueled by swimmers at Virginia’s Roanoke College, where Kate Pearson (left), Lily Mullens (center) and Bailey Gallagher (right) athletes held a press conference after being forced to swim with a transgender woman
‘The NCAA may not be bound by Title IX, but the schools that make up its membership are, and the NCAA has an obligation to help its member schools comply with equal opportunity mandates, not subvert them.’
The rules across sports are inconsistent and patchwork.
The International Olympic Committee in November 2021 said it was up to individual sports to determine their own rules, and abandoned their previous stipulation that trans women suppress their testosterone levels for at least 12 months to compete.
By contrast, in March this year the governing body for track and field events, World Athletics (WA), announced they were prohibiting athletes who have gone through what it called ‘male puberty’ from participating in female world rankings competitions.
WA said the exclusion would apply to ‘male-to-female transgender athletes who have been through male puberty.’
‘This list of speakers joining the rally is incredible, the momentum we have seen in this movement to save women’s sports continues to inspire others to join our fight to keep women’s sports for women,’ Coley said.
‘Brave athletes, coaches and parents are speaking out and standing together in honor of the generations of women who came before them and in defense of all the women and girls who will come next. We won’t back down until the NCAA stops discriminating.’