Home · Politics · Sep 24 archive
'Back of the bus': Female athletes tell Senate letting men in their sports promotes misogyny
Developing
In Short: Gaines and other female athletes, including plaintiff Lainey Armstead from the Supreme Court case upholding state bans on males in girls' sports, spoke at a Senate Judiciary GOP press conference after the hearing.
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, GOP senators debated the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, arguing that male participation in women's sports promotes misogyny.
Sen. Chuck Grassley cited the growth in male participation in women's sports amid record viewership and rising pay, crediting WNBA player Caitlin Clark for the spike in player salaries.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn highlighted her resolution to designate Oct. 10 as American Girls in Sports Day, noting the significance of the Roman numerals XX for the female sex chromosomes.
Independent Council on Women’s Sports cofounder Kim Jones described ceding a podium to a male as an 'institutionalized, sanctioned humiliation ritual' for female athletes.
Smolak noted that male athletes don't even have to be particularly skilled to hurt women, given that men are generally bigger, stronger, faster, and often much taller.
What this adds
The hearing also addressed concerns over sex screening, noting it is less invasive and cheaper than ever, and has been supported by female athletes for decades.
Opposition to coed competition nearly derailed Senate legislation to set national standards for college sports, based on concerns that the Protect College Sports Act could exempt the NCAA from state bans on males in women's sports.
Background
A new ad campaign featuring Sydney Sweeney has sparked a debate over the sexualization of women in sports.
What's still developing
- Sex screening is less invasive and cheaper than ever, and female athletes have supported it for decades, senators told.
- Moody trashed House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries for calling the GOP's Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act the " Child Predator Empowerment Act," based on activist talking points and false reporting that sex verification requires genital inspection.
- Gaines and other female athletes subject to male competition, including plaintiff Lainey Armstead from the Supreme Court case that upheld state bans on males in girls' sports, spoke at a Senate Judiciary GOP press conference after the hearing.
- "The message to young girls is that boys can be better female athletes than girls," former professional soccer player Carly Smolak said, questioning the viability of her career had her home state of Oregon — which Smolak called an oasis for girls' sports in the 1980s and 1990s — let males compete against her.
- Smolak shared her horror at learning that her former team in Australian rules football added a male player, a former Marine, but didn't tell players he was a registered sex offender and had spent 15 years in a military prison for abusing children.
- The Party of Lincoln returned to that rhetoric at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday on protecting women's sports from male competition, accusing the Democrats who uniformly boycotted the hearing of supporting misogynistic policies that subjugate women to the desires of men and push them "to the back of the bus," as one witness put it.
- Opposition to coed competition nearly sunk Senate legislation to set national standards for college sports, based on concerns that the Protect College Sports Act could exempt the NCAA from state bans on males in women's sports.