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Female athletes demand that the National Collegiate Athletic Association stop allowing biological males to compete in women’s college sports.
The group protested outside the NCAA convention in San Antonio on Thursday, hand-delivering a letter threatening legal action.
Many current and former college athletes, including swimmers Riley Gaines and Marshi Smith, attended the protest and demanded that the NCAA “take direct and immediate action to establish rules to keep women’s college sports female.”
Footage from the protest shows the athletes and members of ICONS (Independent Women’s Sports Council) reading their letter in front of the convention holding signs reading “Our Bodies, Our Sports.”
University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines competed against Lia Thomas last year and is calling on the NCAA to stop discriminating against female athletes.
The letter delivered to the NCAA stated, “In the world of college sports, it is impossible to provide equal opportunity for both sexes (as Title IX requires) without women-only teams.”
“Yet the NCAA implements and perpetuates a policy of allowing male athletes to be part of women’s teams, even as sports governing bodies and federal courts increasingly reject these unfair and inequitable policies that exclude young women from their own teams.
In addition to the letter, athletes and advocates against transgender people in sports said they will take legal action if the NCAA doesn’t “protect female athletes from discrimination on the basis of sex.”
Marshi Smith, NCAA champion and co-founder of ICONS, added: “The NCAA doesn’t get to choose which laws to follow.
It comes after a protest against Lia Thomas (pictured with Gaines last year), who was the first transgender athlete to win a national title.
In addition to the letter, athletes and advocates for transgender people in sports said they will take legal action if the NCAA doesn’t “protect female athletes from discrimination on the basis of sex.”
Marshi Smith, NCAA Champion and Co-Founder of ICONS, Also Calls on NCAA to “Protect” Female Athletes
“They must protect female athletes from discrimination on the basis of sex, or expect us to be forced to take legal action to force them to do so.”
The letter requires the NCAA to “revoke all policies and rules that allow male athletes to hold roster spots on women’s teams and/or compete in women’s events.”
It comes after a protest against Lia Thomas, who was the first transgender athlete to win a national title.
Gaines completed against Thomas last year and is calling on the NCAA to stop discriminating against female athletes.
Speaking Thursday, she said: “Today, we intend to personally tell the NCAA to stop discriminating against female athletes by delivering to them a petition that we’ve gotten nearly 10,000 signatures on in just a couple of days.”
In March, Thomas, a student at the University of Pennsylvania, made history by becoming the first transgender athlete to win the NCAA Division I women’s 500-yard freestyle event.
The NCAA updated its transgender participation policy last January to concede to guidance from each sport’s governing body, and USA Swimming updated its policy shortly thereafter.
Gaines appeared alongside former President Donald Trump at the Conservative Political Action Conference to discuss his stance on the issue.
The letter requires the NCAA to “revoke all policies and rules that allow male athletes to hold roster spots on women’s teams and/or compete in women’s events.”
Both Thomas and Gaines were nominated by their schools for the NCAA Women of the Year Award.
During the 2018 and 2019 swimming seasons, Thomas competed in the men’s division.
The health sciences student went on to refer to Thomas as her dead name, saying that the year before she became champion, she didn’t break 500.
She said: “At the NCAA Championships, I saw a 6’4” man exposing male parts in our women’s locker room.
“To be perfectly clear, the anatomy that I and many other women were forced to see confirms that Thomas is male.”
Gaines said she then asked National Collegiate Athletic Association officials where she could change “since I had no intention of undressing in front of a man.”
“I was informed that there were no protections to change in a space that Thomas did not have access to.
Both Thomas and Gaines were nominated by their schools for the NCAA Women of the Year Award. During the 2018 and 2019 swimming seasons, Thomas competed in the men’s division.
Thomas previously competed on the UPenn men’s swim team for three years before transitioning in 2019.
“To summarize, the NCAA placed the responsibility on women to avoid disrobing in front of a biological man with biological parts who is sexually attracted to women. Let that sink in.
The NCAA updated its transgender participation policy last January to concede to guidance from each sport’s governing body, and USA Swimming updated its policy shortly thereafter.
USA Swimming requires transgender athletes competing at an elite level to have low testosterone levels, half of what Thomas was allowed to compete in, for at least 36 months before being eligible.
But the NCAA said that weeks later it announced that the decision had been made not to alter its testosterone guidance at the current time.
They stated that “implementing additional changes at this time could have unfair and potentially detrimental impacts on schools and student-athletes who intend to compete in the 2022 NCAA women’s swimming championships.”