The House Subcommittee for Healthcare and Financial Services on Tuesday became the latest legislative body to address the controversy over transgender athletes in women's sports, as former Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, ex-Oberlin lacrosse coach Kim Russell and the Heritage Foundation's Sarah Parshall Perry testified in favor of a ban.
Tuesday's hearing came as the Biden administration's education department pushes to amend Title IX to support the inclusion of trans athletes in women's sports.
“There should be no debate about this, but we are here today because the Biden administration is choosing to ignore the truth, and I might add, the science,” committee chairwoman Lisa McClain (Republican-Michigan) said to open the proceedings .
Ranking committee member Summer Lee (Democratic-Pennsylvania) disagreed.
“It is disappointing to me that while the title of this hearing implies a much-needed discussion, we will likely be forced to listen to transphobic bigotry,” Lee said. “Because protecting female athletes and Title IX is actually important. Sports provide so many benefits for our youth… So why are my Republican colleagues working so hard to prevent our trans youth from participating?”
Subcommittee Chairwoman Lisa McClain (Republican-Michigan) speaks during Tuesday's hearing
(From left) Riley Gaines, Sarah Parshall Perry, Kim Russell and Fatima Goss Graves are sworn in
Ex-Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines was the first to testify before the subcommittee on Tuesday
As the battle fields were drawn, witnesses gave their testimony for the hearing.
Gaines echoed McClain's sentiments, arguing that too many trans athletes compete in women's sports.
“There are numerous documented examples of men competing not only in women's swimming, but also in women's track and field, cross country, basketball, volleyball, hockey and other sports at all levels of competition,” Gaines said in her prepared statement . provided to the media.
“At the high school level, male athletes' participation on women's teams is perhaps one of the most under-reported stories in the country.”
And according to Gaines, who has become popular in conservative media, “Americans intuitively know this isn't fair.
“Science supports that instinct,” she continued. 'Research consistently shows that male bodies have approximately a 10% athletic advantage over female bodies.
“This gap is visible in almost every sport and at every level of competition. Yes, hormone therapy can reduce this gap. But it cannot close it, and studies consistently show that surgery and testosterone suppression do not return male athletic performance to normal female levels.”
Gaines has consistently campaigned against trans women's participation in sports since 2022, when she finished in fifth place in the 200-yard NCAA freestyle championship with University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, a transgender woman who previously competed against men.
On Tuesday, Gaines claimed that Thomas was only “mediocre” before his transition.
“Take Thomas for example,” she said. “He was mediocre at best against the men who were ranked 400th and 500th nationally, and then went on to dominate all the women in the entire country (by size, I might add) in a matter of a year.”
Penn's Lia Thomas and Kentucky's Riley Gaines react after finishing tied for fifth in the 200 freestyle
On Tuesday, she argued that it poses a safety risk for transgender women to compete with other women.
“Of course, injuries can and do occur when women play against other women,” said Gaines, a member of the conservative Independent Women's Forum. 'But allowing men to play women's sports increases the likelihood and severity of such injuries.
“That's one reason why, for 50 years, federal Title IX regulations have allowed schools to offer separate teams for women and men if the sports are contact sports or involve competitive skills.”
Gaines specifically addressed 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 members of this committee will take action to stop the Biden administration's illegal administrative rewrite of Title IX,” she concluded.
Gaines, a Tennessee native, endorsed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' US presidential bid in June and appeared as a witness later that month at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on civil rights protections for the LGBTQ community.
During that testimony and again Tuesday, 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, titles and opportunities, the NCAA forced me and my female swimmers to to share a locker room with Thomas, a six-foot-tall 22-year-old man equipped with (and exposed) male genitalia.'
Summer Lee (Dem-Pa.) advocated for the inclusion of trans athletes in women's sports
Former Oberlin lacrosse coach Kim Russell said she believes the left's Title IX is in jeopardy
Russell, another member of the Independent Women's Forum, was removed as coach of the women's lacrosse team at Oberlin College in Ohio after speaking out against transgender athletes in female sports.
Russell claims she was moved to a paperwork position that prevented her from working directly with students as a result of her views on transgender athletes in women's sports.
“Oberlin College removed me from coaching women's lacrosse after I chose to tell my story publicly and refused to remain silent or back down on my belief that men – no matter how they identify themselves – should not compete in women's sporting events. Russell said in her prepared statement.
In offering a different view, Fatima Goss Graves, minority witness and CEO of the National Women's Law Center, spoke from her prepared statement Tuesday, saying Congress should “pursue policies that meaningfully increase gender equality and promotes honesty.'
“Anti-trans policies undermine the intentions of Title IX for at least three reasons,” she wrote in her prepared remarks.
“First, the policy that excludes trans girls and women from school sports programs threatens all women and girls who excel in athletics, and anyone who deviates from gender stereotypes, by encouraging challenges that burden women to prove that they are 'real' women and creating risks of intrusive and harmful sex verification practices.
“Black and brown women and girls who participate in school sports are at particularly high risk of harm from these policies, because Black and brown women are often seen as 'non-conforming' to white-centric norms of femininity.
Sarah Parshall Perry testified in favor of banning trans athletes from women's sports
In dissent, Fatima Goss Graves, CEO of the National Women's Law Center, testified
“Second, this policy reinforces a false binary by assuming that those assigned male at birth are inevitably and inherently athletically superior, and those identified as female are inherently weaker and less athletic.
“This reductive narrative harms all women and girls. We see this demonstrated in the over-funding of men's sports programs and the chronic failure to invest in women's sports programs.
“Finally, trans exclusionary policies in school sports programs for women and girls undermine Title IX's intent to make athletic participation, with all its educational benefits, available to all students, free from sex discrimination. Denying trans women and girls access to women's and girls' sports denies them the opportunities to gain academic and social benefits, including a sense of community and belonging among their peers.”
Graves concluded by encouraging the Subcommittee to support the Biden Administration's proposed Title IX changes to support the inclusion of trans athletes.