What’s Current: 72 female athletes sign letter in support of Protect Women & Girls in Sports Act

  • On Wednesday, 72 female athletes, including swimmer Riley Gaines, released a letter to the United States Congress applauding the passage of the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act. They write:

“Forcing female athletes, like ourselves, to compete against biological males is not only unfair, it is discriminatory and illegal. Allowing biological males to take awards, roster spots, scholarships, or spots at a school from female athletes violates Title IX’s prohibition of discrimination ‘on the basis of sex.’ The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act amends Title IX to make that explicitly clear and puts athletic organizations, athletic directors, and bureaucrats at the Department of Education on notice that they may not adopt policies that promote ‘inclusion’ on the backs of women.”

The letter was organized by the advocacy division of the Independent Women’s Forum, Independent Women’s Voice, in response to Megan Rapinoe’s efforts to oppose the bill.

  • Lia Thomas, the male swimmer who tied with Riley Gaines for fifth place in the women’s 200-meter NCAA championships last year (but took the trophy) tells trans podcaster (also a swimmer), Schuyler Bailar, that trans women should be “celebrated for their accomplishments in sport.” The two determine that the female athletes speaking out against males competing against women are “fake feminists,” arguing that critics are “policing women’s bodies.”
  • A male murderer being held at a women’s jail unit in Scotland wants to become the first prisoner in Britain to have publicly funded gender reassignment surgery. Paris Green (born Peter Laing) claimed having the major operation would help him “feel comfortable in the shower” and become “fully the person I should have been”. The 30-year-old is serving a life sentence for the murder of Robert Shankland, 45, in 2013.
  • Police have charged a 20-year-old man with assault after an elderly woman was punched in the head during Posie Parker’s Let Women Speak event in New Zealand last month.
Meghan Murphy

Founder & Editor

Meghan Murphy is a freelance writer and journalist from Vancouver, BC. She has been podcasting and writing about feminism since 2010 and has published work in numerous national and international publications, including The Spectator, UnHerd, Quillette, the CBC, New Statesman, Vice, Al Jazeera, The Globe and Mail, and more. Meghan completed a Masters degree in the department of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies at Simon Fraser University in 2012 and is now exiled in Mexico with her very photogenic dog.