by Riley Gaines | Nov 1, 2024 | Opinion
By Riley Gaines and Sami Keddington |
By now, my story is pretty well-known. I (Riley Gaines) swam against Lia Thomas (who had previously competed on Penn’s men’s team before switching to the women’s team) in the spring of 2022, and we tied for fifth place. Officials told me Thomas needed to hold the trophy for “photo purposes” and that they would mail me mine. What a degrading way to finish my swimming career.
Thomas made headlines early this year after suing World Aquatics (and losing) in hopes to compete as a woman in the 2024 Paris Olympics. World Aquatics, understanding that testosterone suppression doesn’t eliminate male athletic advantage, prohibits individuals who have gone through male puberty from competing in women’s events.
If Thomas would have been allowed to compete as a woman, it’s very possible that the women’s Olympics might have had a different outcome. Thomas had the fastest time in the nation in the women’s 500 freestyle in 2022. And, as we’ve seen in various sports across the nation and the world, over 500 medals, honors, and trophies meant for women have gone to males who identify as such. This is demeaning and discouraging at best.
That’s exactly what Title IX protects against. Under the Title IX Congress passed 52 years ago, women were promised equal opportunities, including in athletics, in an educational program (like high school and college) that accepts federal money, even indirectly.
But radical and illegal interpretations of Title IX say it doesn’t protect women, but rather subordinates women to males who identify as women. The Biden-Harris administration released a controversial revision in April (in effect as of August 1), unilaterally rewriting the landmark sex equality law. This is a dangerous game to play. Several states have challenged the law and preserved single-sex sports in their states. Arizona is not one of them, thanks to Democrats in charge deciding to support the Biden-Harris regime.
Not only did Arizona leaders fail to sue, but Congress had a chance to undo the Biden-Harris Title IX revisions. A Congressional Review Act (CRA) joint resolution was introduced and voted on by the House to overturn this rewrite, but the Senate failed to act.
U.S. Congressman Ruben Gallego (AZ-3), now running for a hotly-contested Senate seat in Arizona, was one of 205 Democratic members of Congress who voted not to protect women’s sports, signaling his disdain for the integrity of women’s spaces.
As both of us have said before, the allowance of men in women’s sports is discrimination at the highest level. I (Sami) played women’s disc golf professionally since 2012 and recently stepped down so that I could join the fight for women’s rights.
This is truly one of the top civil rights issues of our time, and so much is at stake.
It’s not just sports that are affected, either. Across the country, we’ve seen males dominate women’s prisons, sororities, locker rooms, and other intimate spaces. This is nothing less than the attempted erasure of women.
This year, the Arizona legislature passed the “Arizona Women’s Bill of Rights” to codify common sense definitions of sex-based terms, such as “woman,” “man,” “female,” and “male.” Sadly, it was vetoed by Governor Katie Hobbs.
Time and time again, elected officials on the federal and state levels have signaled that they do not stand with women. And we’ve had enough.
That’s why I created the Riley Gaines Stand With Women Scorecard with Independent Women’s Voice. This first-of-its-kind resource scores every candidate for federal office on whether they stand with women and promise “to uphold legislation that preserves female opportunities and private spaces.”
Senate Candidate Kari Lake, for instance, signed the Stand With Women Commitment, making her the only Arizona Senate candidate to be Riley Gaines-Approved.
As former athletes, we desperately hope the next generation of girls have the same opportunities we had to compete and win, with privacy and safety in mind. The integrity of women’s spaces hangs in the balance. Do your leaders stand with women? Visit the scorecard to find out.
Riley Gaines is an ambassador with Independent Women’s Voice and a former 12x All-American swimmer at the University of Kentucky. She is the host of “Gaines for Girls” on OutKick and author of Swimming Against the Current: Fighting for Common Sense in a World That’s Lost its Mind. Sami Keddington is the Chandler, Arizona, Chapter leader of Independent Women’s Network and a former professional disc golfer.
by Daniel Stefanski | Apr 19, 2024 | News
By Daniel Stefanski |
Arizona’s Democrat governor delivered a fatal blow to a bill that would have increased protections for the state’s women and girls.
On Tuesday, Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed SB 1628, the Arizona Women’s Bill of Rights. The legislation would have “require[d] any policy program, rule or law that prohibits sex discrimination to prohibit the unfair treatment of a female or male in relation to a similarly situated member of the opposite sex, require[d] the state to replace the stand-alone term gender with sex in all laws, rules, publications, orders, actions, policies and signage when updates are necessary, and provided[d] statutory definitions for boy, father, female, girl, male, man, mother and sex” – according to the purpose provided by the State Senate.
Hobbs was brief in her veto letter to Senate President Warren Petersen, saying only that she “will not sign legislation that attacks Arizonans.”
Arizona Republicans were furious with the action out of the Governor’s Office. Petersen released a statement, writing, “Instead of helping these confused boys and men, Democrats are only fueling the disfunction by pretending biological sex doesn’t matter. Our daughters, granddaughters, nieces, and neighbors are growing up in a dangerous time where they are living with an increased risk of being victimized in public bathrooms, showers, and locker rooms because Democrats are now welcoming biological males into what used to be traditionally safe, single-sex spaces.”
The bill’s sponsor, Senator Sine Kerr, added, “This commonsense bill would have also stopped the injustices of allowing bigger and stronger biological males to compete on female-only sports teams, preserving fairness and safety on the playing field, as well as the athletic accolades and scholarships these women and girls work tirelessly to achieve. We’ve seen far too many examples of girls and women physically injured, relegated to the bench, and bumped off the winner’s podium by males competing as females. The madness needs to stop. Democrats have launched an attack against biological females. While a Democrat is currently in control of our Executive Branch, real women must continue to push back, stand for truth, and make their voices heard to advocate for the protection of their rights.”
Riley Gaines, a star collegiate athlete and a champion of women’s rights, weighed in on Hobbs’ action on her “X” account. Gaines said, “Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs just vetoed SB 1628, a bill that would codify & define the word ‘woman’ in state law. Who woulda guessed? Women, yet again, proving to be our own worst enemy.”
Christy Narsi, the national chapter director for Independent Women’s Network, echoed Gaines’ sentiments, stating, “Ironically, despite being a woman, Gov. Hobbs refuses to acknowledge that women are adult, human, females – as commonly understood for millenia – and has no interest in advancing privacy, safety, and equal opportunity for the 3.6 million Arizonan women.”
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
by Paula Scanlan | Apr 15, 2024 | Opinion
By Paula Scanlan and Christy Narsi |
Governor Katie Hobbs has a rare opportunity to do something with the overwhelming support of her citizens, and that would make her a groundbreaker. She could become the first female governor to sign the Women’s Bill of Rights.
This shouldn’t take courage. This legislation, which was just passed by the Arizona state house, defines words like “woman” and “female” so when it comes to laws that use these words, we can all speak a common language. The bill also declares the state’s important interest in preserving female-only spaces and opportunities when privacy, safety, or fairness are implicated. Importantly, this law doesn’t prevent policymakers or local leaders from deciding to allow trans-identifying individuals from being included in any arena, but it gives us a language so that there is truth in advertising, and we have the ability to reserve some spaces and opportunities just for women.
We both know personally why this is so important.
I, Paula Scanlan, was a teammate of Lia Thomas at the University of Pennsylvania. Governor Hobbs, you’ve undoubtedly heard about how Lia Thomas – formerly Will Thomas when he competed on the men’s team – took competition spots, won titles, and smashed female records from female swimmers like me. But perhaps you haven’t heard about what it was like to have to share a locker room with him. As a sexual assault survivor, I was forced to change next time him, and have him undress just a few feet away from me, often several times a day. When I tried to tell administrators that I was uncomfortable sharing such private spaces with fully intact men, they told me I should get counseling, that I shouldn’t complain, and that they didn’t care about how this felt to me or the other women on my team.
I, Christy Narsi, serve as a chapter leader for Independent Women’s Network in Phoenix, and I hear daily from moms who are concerned about the message that we are sending our daughters today. We hear of mothers who are concerned about their daughters’ safety when they are forced to face bigger, stronger male-bodied athletes on the athletic fields. My colleague, Payton McNabb, had to face a male volleyball player on the court when she was a junior in high school. He spiked the ball in her face so hard that she had a serious concussion and brain injury. More than two years later, she still has partial paralysis. Why are women and girls’ safety concerns being brushed aside? Why is it that women and girls are being told that they need to step aside, that their dreams and aspirations don’t matter and have to be sacrificed for male-bodied athletes who want to join the women’s teams?
Governor Hobbs, as I’m sure you know, this is about more than just sport. Women’s rights—and the very concept of womanhood—are under assault as never before in history. Inmates in women’s prisons are being put at risk when they allow male prisoners—including violent sex offenders—into women’s prisons around the country. Men are entering female sororities, domestic violence shelters, and educational training programs that were created specifically to encourage women’s engagement.
Overwhelmingly Americans recognize that it isn’t fair to force women to compete against biological men. To back up this common sense is hard scientific data, like that outlined in the Competition Report, which shows that a human being who goes through male puberty, when testosterone levels rise by about 20 times, enjoys an irreversible advantage in strength and athletic power. Taking testosterone suppressors later in life doesn’t change that reality. Data shows that men have physical advantages—not just in terms of strength and speed but in lung capacity and how their hearts process blood—that are hard-wired in their bodies. This is why there are women’s leagues and competitions in the first place, and why it is simply dangerous and inhumane to have female inmates forced to share their spaces with men.
We are so grateful that Arizona’s state legislature decided to do something about it by passing this truth-in-advertising legislation. We hope that you will sign this bill into law and stand up for women’s rights in Arizona—and be a model for others across the nation.
Paula Scanlan is an ambassador with Independent Women’s Voice and a former swimmer at the University of Pennsylvania. Christy Narsi is the co-leader of the Independent Women’s Network Arizona Chapter, and is based in Surprise, AZ.
by Daniel Stefanski | Feb 11, 2024 | News
By Daniel Stefanski |
An Arizona lawmaker is taking action to protect women across the state.
This week, Senator Sine Kerr introduced SB 1628, the Arizona Women’s Bill of Rights, which would “bring clarity and uniformity to state laws governing sex discrimination and equality of the sexes.”
The bill would define “sex” as a “person’s biological sex, either male or female, for all purposes of state law.” The proposal would also “preserve single-sex spaces to ensure girls’ and women’s safety and privacy in those spaces, while not changing current law or creating new restrictions on anyone’s legal rights.”
In a statement that accompanied the announcement, Senator Kerr said, “Laws should be based in objective reality and uniform for all Arizonans. Men and boys have been encroaching on girls’ and women’s private spaces, like locker rooms and showers, as well as sports teams, robbing women from athletic opportunities and putting them in danger as they face physically stronger males in competition. SB 1628 supports women and girls in their rights to privacy, fairness, and safety on the playing field.”
Kerr hosted a press conference at the Arizona Capitol to highlight her efforts. Paula Scanlan, a former University of Pennsylvania swimmer and current Independent Women’s Voice Ambassador, was at the event to support Kerr’s legislation. During her time in collegiate athletics, Scanlan “was forced to share a locker room and compete with a trans-identifying male swimmer.”
Scanlan also released a statement to endorse the Arizona Women’s Bill of Rights, writing, “I am happy to support the introduction of the Women’s Bill of Rights in Arizona. With more than 3.5 million women living in the state, this bill would have an incredible impact in providing scientifically-sound protections for women and their personal spaces. Having experienced firsthand the injustices of inviting males into women’s private areas and allowing them to steal athletic accolades from young ladies dedicating their lives to their chosen sports, I know the incredible importance of having legislation that stops these reckless new norms.”
Joining Kerr as co-sponsors of the bill were Senators Bennett, Bolick, Borrelli, Carroll, Gowan, Kavanagh, Mesnard, Petersen, Shamp, and Shope.
On the Arizona Legislature’s Request to Speak system, representatives from the Arizona Center for Women’s Advancement, NARAL Pro-Choice America, National Council of Jewish Women for Arizona, Stonewall Democrats of Arizona, and the Human Rights Campaign registered their opposition to the legislation.
SB 1628 has been assigned to the Senate Health and Human Services Committee and is expected to be heard next week.
“Girls and women deserve to be safe in the places where they are most vulnerable, and we have seen far too many examples of girls and women physically injured, relegated to the bench, and bumped off the winner’s podium by males competing as females,” added Senator Kerr.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
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