House subcommittee should REJECT Biden Administration’s proposal allowing trans athletes to compete in women’s sports, ex-college swimmer Riley Gaines tells Congress: ‘Americans know this is not fair’

The House Health and Financial Services subcommittee on Tuesday became the latest legislative body to address the controversy regarding transgender athletes in women’s sports, as former Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, former Oberlin lacrosse coach Kim Russell and the Legacy Foundation’s Sarah Parshall Perry gave evidence in favor of prohibition.

Tuesday’s hearing comes as the Biden administration’s Education Department pushes to change Title IX to support the inclusion of trans athletes in women’s sports.

“There should be no debate on this, yet we are here today because the Biden administration chooses to ignore the truth, and I might add, science,” said committee Chairwoman Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) as she opened the meeting.

Ranking Committee member Summer Lee (D-Pa.) disagreed.

“I am disappointed that while the title of this hearing suggests much-needed discussion, we will likely have to listen to transphobic bigotry,” Lee said. “Because actually protecting female athletes and Title IX is very important. Sports bring so many benefits to our youth… So why are my fellow Republicans working so hard to keep our trans youth from participating?”

While the lawns were painted, witnesses gave their testimony at the hearing.

Gaines echoed McClain’s sentiments, arguing that there are too many trans athletes competing in women’s sports.

“There are numerous documented cases of men competing not only in women’s swimming, but also in women’s track and field, cross country, basketball, volleyball, field hockey and other sports at all levels of competition,” Gaines said in her prepared statement, which was provided to the media.

“At the high school level, the participation of male athletes on women’s teams is perhaps one of the most underrated stories in the country.”

In the words of Gaines, who has been popularized by conservative media: “Americans intuitively know that this is not fair.

“Science supports this instinct,” she continued. “In fact, research consistently shows that men’s bodies have about a 10% athletic advantage over women’s.

“This gap is evident in almost every sport and at every level of competition. Yes, hormone therapy can close this gap. But it cannot solve this problem, and research has consistently shown that surgery and testosterone suppression do not reduce male athletic performance to normal female levels.”

Gaines has been a persistent advocate against trans women’s participation in sports since 2022, when she tied for fifth at the NCAA 200-yard freestyle championships with University of Pennsylvania swimmer Leah Thomas, a transgender woman who has previously competed against men.

Gaines said Tuesday that Thomas was only “mediocre” before the transfer.

“Take Thomas for example,” she said. “He was mediocre against men ranked 400th and 500th nationally at best, and then dominated all the women across the country (in body length, I might add) for a year.”

She said Tuesday that allowing transgender women to compete against other women poses a safety risk.

“Of course, injuries can and do happen even when females play against other females,” Gaines said. “But allowing men to participate in women’s sports increases the likelihood and severity of such injuries.

“This is one of the reasons why for 50 years federal Title IX regulations have allowed schools to offer separate teams for women and men when the sports are contact or require competitive skills.”

Gaines took particular aim at the Department of Education’s proposal to allow anyone who identifies as a woman to participate in women’s sports.

“It is my sincere hope that the members of this committee will take action to stop the Biden administration’s unlawful administrative overhaul of Title IX,” she concluded.

Gaines, a Tennessee native, endorsed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 2024 bid for the U.S. presidency in June and testified later that month at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on LGBT civil rights.

During that testimony, Gaines said she was traumatized by being forced to use the same locker room as Thomas: “In addition to being forced to give up our awards, our titles, and our opportunities, the NCAA forced me and my swimmers to separate locker room with Thomas, a 6’4, 22-year-old man equipped with (and exposed) male genitalia.”

Another member of the Independent Women’s Forum, Russell was removed from her position as the women’s lacrosse coach at Oberlin College in Ohio after speaking out against transgender athletes in women’s sports.

Russell claims she was transferred to a paperwork position that prevented her from working directly with students because of her opinions about transgender athletes in women’s sports.

“Oberlin College suspended me from coaching women’s lacrosse after I decided to publicly tell my story and refused to remain silent or back down from my belief that men – no matter how they identify – should not be allowed to participate in women’s lacrosse. sports competitions.” Russell said in her prepared statement.

To make a different point, minority witness and National Women’s Law Center CEO Fatima Goss Graves delivered her prepared statement Tuesday, saying Congress must “pursue policies that significantly increase gender equality and advance fairness.”

“Anti-transgender policies undermine the purpose of Title IX in at least three ways,” she wrote in her prepared remarks.

“First, policies that exclude trans girls and women from school sports programs threaten all women and girls who succeed in athletics and all who deviate from gender stereotypes, encouraging problems that place the burden of proof on women. they are “real” women and create the risks of intrusive and harmful gender testing practices.

“Black and brown women and girls who participate in school sports are at particularly high risk of harm as a result of these policies because Black and brown women are often seen as “not meeting” white-centric standards of femininity.

“Second, this policy reinforces a false binary by suggesting that those assigned male at birth are inevitably and inherently superior at sports, while those identified as female are inherently weaker and less athletic.

“This reductive narrative harms all women and girls. We see this in the overfunding of men’s sports programs and the chronic failure to invest in women’s sports programs.

“Finally, policies of trans exclusion in school sports programs for women and girls undermine the intent of Title IX to make participation in sports, with all its educational benefits, available to all students, free from gender discrimination. Denying trans women and girls access to women’s and women’s sports denies them the opportunity to gain academic and social benefits, including a sense of community and belonging with their peers.”

Graves concluded by urging the Subcommittee to support the Biden Administration’s proposed changes to Title IX that support the inclusion of trans athletes.