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“We have been told it will be our fault if this transgender athlete takes their life.”
How do young women feel about competing with and undressing with boys and men?
The mainstream media won’t tell us. For them, it’s all about “transgender athlete bans,” where the subjects of the stories are males.1
As recently as five years ago, when the Women’s Sports Policy Working Group formed, only older athletes felt sufficiently immune from cancellation to speak out. (It happens but we bounce back.) Younger women were understandably reluctant to risk backlash that could damage their academic and career prospects.
But now teens and young women are raising their voices anyway: with boycotts, speeches, media appearances, t-shirts, memes – and lawsuits.2 Today, I’m amplifying the words and actions of some of these athletes.
HOW THEY LEAD
“Lia Thomas is not a brave, courageous woman who EARNED a national title. He is an arrogant cheat who STOLE a national title from a hardworking, deserving woman.” — Riley Gaines, pulling no punches, as usual. Gaines was the first young woman to protest in public, at age 22. She competed against Thomas in the 2022 NCAA Women’s Swimming National Championship and saw Thomas defeat Emma Wyant, an Olympic silver medalist, for the national women’s 500-meter freestyle title.
HOW THEIR KINDNESS IS USED AGAINST THEM
Paula Scanlan, who swam with Thomas at the University of Pennsylvania and watched him move from the men’s team (as Will) to the women’s team (as Lia), was the second young woman to speak out publicly. She testified in 2023 at age 23 before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government.
“People weaponize the fact that women are agreeable. The environment of 20-something-year-old girls is always: Be inclusive. So, amongst my team members… we would have conversations: “How is Will feeling? Is Will comfortable?” — Scanlan, on her team’s initial reaction when told that Will would be joining the women’s team. This was before they realized that Thomas would be taking trophies and participation slots from women and, as a fully intact male, stripping naked in front of them while they, too, undressed.
HOW THEY ARE THREATENED, PUNISHED
After complaining about a male teammate’s presence in their locker room and his inappropriate remarks in 2022, most of the members of the Randolph High School (Vermont) girls’ volleyball team were banned from their own locker room.
Five girls from Lincoln Middle School (West Virginia) protested a male athlete’s participation in a track and field competition in 2024 by stepping into the shot-put circle, then stepping out without throwing the shot. In retaliation, the five dissenters were excluded from upcoming meets.
“We were not allowed to talk about it. Our scholarships would be put in jeopardy if we were to speak up. We were told we were the ones who needed therapy.” — Brooke Slusser, San Jose State University (SJSU) volleyball player whose team included a male player
[The administrators told us:] “Lia swimming is non-negotiable. Do not talk to the media. You will regret speaking to the media.” — Paula Scanlan
“My athletic director made me remove my shirt and told me it was like wearing a swastika in front of a Jewish person.” — Taylor Starling, 16, after she and teammate Kaitlin Slavin wore t-shirts saying Save Girls Sports. Starling, who attends Martin Luther King High School in Riverside, California, had been demoted to junior varsity to make room for a male transfer student on the girls’ varsity team.
“My family and I have been told by adults that we are transphobic, that I am a sore loser, that I value winning more than a human life. We have been told that it will be our fault if this transgender athlete takes their life.” — Ahnaleigh Wilson, 14, who lost a Junior Olympics 1600-meter race in Washington to a boy, speaking to an audience of more than 500 in 2024
HOW THEY MAKE THEIR CASE
It was former college volleyball player Macy Petty, commenting on the SJSU boycotts, who intriguingly introduced the feminist concept of consent:
“Women fought hard for – and deserve – the right to say no when we do not consent to playing alongside men.”
“It’s common sense. XX does not equal XY. This is not hateful or unkind. This is reality. Why are girls being told we must sit down and be quiet while boys unfairly get ahead of us in life? Girls matter, too.” — Taylor Starling, testifying to the California State Assembly
“I’m only fourteen and should not have to deal with these kinds of adult issues. But here I am speaking up, hoping adults will step up and do what is right to keep women’s sports fair and safe for biological girls.” — Annaleigh Wilson
HOW THEY FEEL ABOUT FORCED INDECENT EXPOSURE
“Going into a locker room and seeing males in there, I don't find that safe.” — Unnamed 16-year-old female student-athlete speaking to the school board at Riverside High School, California
“I can’t… put into words the feelings of violation when hearing a man’s voice in the locker room where you are fully nude. Thomas walked toward the corner of the locker room and began to change out of a women’s practice suit and get naked. Our privacy as females had been entirely dismissed, violated, and ignored.” — Riley Gaines, Swimming Against the Current: Fighting for Common Sense in a World That’s Lost Its Mind
HOW THEY PROTEST: SILENCE AND BOOING
When Aayden Gallagher, of McDaniel High School, won the 200-meter state title in 2024, he was booed while crossing the finish line of the race and again when being crowned Oregon Girls’ 6A 200-meter state champion. The seven girls standing on lower rungs of the podium held any applause.
Below: Gallagher winning gold in the Girls 400-meter varsity race last month at the Portland Interscholastic League meet. Watch him set a season record by finishing seven seconds ahead of the girls; note how dejected they look.
HOW ELSE THEY PROTEST: BOYCOTTS, GIRLCOTTS
“We said we’re not going to play against them because it’s not fair. It’s not right. It’s stealing an opportunity from a woman.” — Sia Liilii, captain of the 2024 University of Nevada, Reno women's volleyball team, which boycotted SJSU last fall due to SJSU’s male player. Four other Division I universities also boycotted. Liilii received an XX-XY Athletics Courage Wins Award.
See my previous stories here and here.
“Females must be protected in our division. It’s unfair. I refuse to play.” — Abigail Wilson, a professional disc golfer, walked off the course at the Music City Open in Nashville this month in protest over male player Natalie Ryan. “Today I most likely ended my career and that is okay because this is bigger than me.”
“When I took the knee, I looked at the ref and I said, ‘I’m sorry, I cannot do this. I am a woman, and this is a man, and this is a women’s tournament. I will not fence this individual.” — Fencer Stephanie Turner, who protested last month. She was expelled but received an XX-XY Athletics Courage Wins Award. The man in question, Redmond Sullivan, who had competed on girls’ and boys’ sports teams in high school simultaneously, left the Wagner College women’s team a week later.
“It’s not right for boys to compete against girls in sports. It’s a huge disadvantage for girls.” — Hannah Pompeo, a 16-year-old soccer player at Eden High School (New York), who “girlcotted” after-school sports during a statewide “Walk Off for Fairness Day” protest in October
HOW THEY TAKE MATTERS INTO THEIR OWN HANDS
“We felt unheard and unseen by the NCAA, our school, and lawmakers, who told us we had to deal with it ourselves.” — Kate Pearson, a captain on the women’s swim team at Roanoke College (VA) in October 2023. They dealt with it themselves, confronting the man who had been planning to swim with them. He withdrew.
HOW THEY THINK ABOUT THE FUTURE
“The females who lost trophies, recognition, they need to get back what they deserve. And take it from the men.” — Minna Svärd, a Swedish track athlete who competed for Texas A&M University and placed second in the 2019 Division II national championship after CeCé Telfer, a Franklin Pierce University male, who won. In the men’s category in 2017, Telfer had ranked 390th.
“I’m doing this for future generations of young girls. Making sure they feel safe in their locker rooms.” — Former Penn swimmer & Lia Thomas’ teammate, Ellen Holmquist, on why she’s suing Penn and the NCAA
I hope other athletes… feel courage to speak up, because the more voices we have, the harder it’s going to be to shut us down.” — Paula Scanlan
See also related stories in my #SaveWomensSports section.
I’ll say more about lawsuits another day. Meanwhile, follow ICONS, Nancy Hogshead; The TERF Report.
BRAVA, Mariah!!
WE DO NOT CONSENT!
Great connection to consent. When there's a conflict of interest, how do we choose the right way? Tying this to consent seems very eye opening to me. A different angle to look at the issue from. Good thinking, Mariah.