IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 24, 2024

Over 7,000 Female NCAA Athletes And Coalition Of Women’s Advocacy Groups Demand The NCAA Board Of Governors End Discriminatory Policies And Protect Women’s Sports

Thousands of individual athletes and women’s rights leaders call on NCAA officials to keep women’s roster spots for female athletes.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Our Bodies, Our Sports, the nation’s leading coalition of women’s advocacy organizations fighting for equal opportunity and fairness in women’s sports, has activated a nationwide campaign, driving personalized letters from more than 7,000 NCAA female athletes to the NCAA Board of Governors. Additionally, Our Bodies, Our Sports delivered a coalition letter signed by its 12 member organizations from across the political aisle demanding the NCAA take immediate action to repeal its discriminatory policy that allows male athletes to compete in women’s sports — taking trophies, roster sports, playing time, resources, and opportunities to compete from women.

Members of the NCAA Board of Governors plan to meet on Thursday, April 25. The NCAA has a short window of opportunity to lead on the issue of sex equality. After the filing of a first-of-its-kind female athlete lawsuit against the NCAA (Gaines et al v NCAA et al), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Council of Presidents unanimously voted to amend its policy to prohibit males in women’s sports, and hearing from NCAA female athletes who demand change, the NCAA Board is expected to consider its current participation policies and women’s sports during the meeting. 

Male athletes continue to compete in NCAA women’s events. Female athletes do not accept this; nor do Our Bodies, Our Sports women’s advocacy groups from across the political spectrum that represent their interests. 

These groups include Women’s Sports Policy Working Group, Champion Women, Independent Women’s Forum (IWF), Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS), the US Chapter of Women’s Declaration International (WDI USA), Concerned Women for America (CWA), Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF), Independent Women’s Voice (IWV), Young Women  for America (YWA), Independent Women’s Law Center (IWLC), International Consortium on Female Sports (ICFS), and Independent Women’s Network (IWN).

The NCAA policy allows males who identify as women to play women’s sports, so long as their levels of testosterone meet sport-specific requirements. The policy contradicts scientific studies that have found testosterone suppression cannot eliminate the male athletic advantage. Moreover, it ignores the legal obligation of its member schools to provide males and females equal opportunities to compete.

The NCAA adopted this policy without the input of female athletes and advocates for the female sporting category.

That is why Our Bodies, Our Sports organizations activated their extensive networks of female athletes to share personal experiences, voice their concerns, and demands to the NCAA to protect women’s collegiate sports ahead of the NCAA Board of Governors’ meeting.

In the last week alone, more than 148,000 personalized emails and letters have been delivered to members of the NCAA Board of Governors — this includes letters from more than 7,000 NCAA female athletes (current and former).

Read the full coalition letter HERE.

Our Bodies, Our Sports is running mobile billboard ads throughout the week in front of the NCAA Headquarters and the perimeter of the NCAA “Inclusion” Forum. The billboards read:

• “Excluding Women is NOT Inclusive” VIEW

• “Don’t take women’s collegiate opportunities & scholarships away. PROTECT WOMEN’S SPORTS” VIEW

• “Without SINGLE-SEX COMPETITION there can be no EQUAL ATHLETIC OPPORTUNITY” VIEW

• “NCAA: PROTECT WOMEN’S SPORTS” VIEW

HERE’S WHAT THEY ARE SAYING:

Martina Navratilova, one of the greatest tennis players of all time, founding member of the Women’s Sports Policy Working Group: “I practiced and competed against men in mixed doubles during my decades on the professional tennis tour. But it didn’t take those experiences to convince me that our common sense is correct: men and women are built so differently that we require our own sport category, to win, to make money, and to create a legacy. I will fight for every girl to have the right to aspire to great accomplishments through sport, and I hope the NCAA will too.”

Riley Gaines, Independent Women’s Forum Ambassador, 12x NCAA All-American, and Host of “Gaines For Girls” on OutKick: “Up until this point the NCAA explicitly violated Title IX in its original intent by openly and actively discriminating against women on the basis of our sex as it pertains to opportunities, privacy in the area of undressing, and safety in our sports. The NCAA is prioritizing inclusion over safety and fairness – denying opportunities to women. The members of the NCAA Board of Governors continue to allow this to happen in every level, every division. So we are mobilizing current and former NCAA female athletes to speak up and contact the members of the Board of Governors. They can no longer avoid accountability and responsibility. We are making sure that the NCAA hears female athletes when we say we will not continue to allow the NCAA to discriminate against us on the basis of our sex. This violates everything Title IX was implemented to protect and honor 52 years ago.”

Paula Scanlan, Independent Women’s Forum Ambassador and former NCAA Athlete and teammate of Lia Thomas:  “Female athletes have worked incredibly hard for the chance to play in college. We know that collegiate roster spots and athletic scholarships are extremely limited. It’s not easy to earn a spot on a college team. When colleges include even a single biological male on a women’s college team, they are excluding a female athlete from the roster, and they are denying other female athletes playing time and opportunities to compete. This isn’t fair. In fact, it’s discriminatory. Not only does the inclusion of males in women’s sports exclude women from athletic opportunities, but it tells women that their voices do not matter. It tells female athletes that their dedication, talent, and dignity is less important than the feelings of men.”

Donna de Varona, Olympic Champion, Swimming, 17-year President of the Women’s Sports Foundation, Emmy Award Winning Sports Broadcaster, founding member, Women’s Sports Policy Working Group: “I’ve heard people say that women’s sports advocates should focus on the enormous inequalities in women’s college athletic opportunities, scholarship dollars, and inferior treatment that are prohibited by Title IX, instead of the eligibility of males who identify as transgender. But those two causes are related. So are the NCAA’s inferior women’s Championship treatment and the NCAA’s refusal to prohibit sexual predators from continuing to compete and coach in member institutions. They are all ways that the NCAA discriminates against women and fails to listen to their pleas. That’s why we’re asking the NCAA to please listen to women, current and former athletes, who believe in the educational mission of sport, the lifelong professional and health benefits that flow to women athletes. To do that, we need our own sports!”

Penny Nance, CEO and President of Concerned Women for America: “The NAIA has put Charlie Baker and the NCAA to shame. NCAA female athletes continue to be exploited under the NCAA’s woke inclusion agenda and its illegitimate policy promoting males on women’s teams. Biden has exposed the NCAA even more by asserting its Title IX regulations haven’t changed eligibility rules for male and female teams based on sex. It’s overtime for the NCAA. Baker and the Board of Governors have doubled down on policy violating Title IX and now face a lawsuit for rules forcing blatant sex discrimination against female athletes. There is no future for female athletes in the NCAA so long as trans identifying males are the new women.” 

Adriana McLamb, Spokeswoman for Independent Women’s Forum, former Division 1 volleyball player, and now coach and recruiter to aspiring collegiate female volleyball players: “Athletes work our entire lives to compete in sports, only to have the NCAA destroy our even playing field. The NCAA and members of the Board of Governors have let me and countless other female athletes — those that aspire to compete at the collegiate level, and current and former NCAA athletes — down. Women are losing the life-changing opportunities that myself and countless other females were afforded.”

Kara Dansky, President of Women’s Declaration International USA: “The US chapter of Women’s Declaration International is proud to stand with female athletes and women’s groups who are demanding that the NCAA prohibit male athletes from competing in women’s sports regardless of their ‘gender identities.’ Women’s sports are for women, not men who pretend to be women. Article 7 of the Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights reaffirms women’s right to the same opportunities as men to participate actively in sports and physical education, including the right to compete exclusively with and against other female athletes. We demand the NCAA reverse its policy of discriminating against female collegiate athletes.”

Nancy Hogshead, J.D., Olympic Champion swimmer, Civil Rights Lawyer, CEO of Champion Women, providing legal advocacy for girls and women in sports, and founding member of the Women’s Sports Policy Working Group: “The NCAA must stop its policy of intentionally excluding the voice of female athletes from its policies governing a male’s ability to compete in women’s categories. Women’s sports were created, built, and defended by women, over many decades. NCAA, listen to women and listen to athletes; we want you to adopt policies that provide a level playing field for fair and safe sport. This includes strict drug testing, accurate weight categories, enforced rules on sports equipment, and … separate sex categories.”

(Hogshead was a keynote speaker for many years at NCAA conferences. For two years she served on the NCAA’s Gender Equity Taskforce. She was in the room when the NCAA’s policy on transgender inclusion was initially considered — where they were told that a male receiving female hormones would move laterally, from the men’s category to the women’s category. In other words, if a male identified as transgender were ranked 500th in the men’s category, a year of estrogen would move that man to the 500th rank in the women’s category. It was never true, and additional and overwhelming science proves that fact, glaringly so. Yet the NCAA did not change its policy when the science became clear, and instead doubled down on its faulty policy, giving trans-advocates a front-row seat at their policy table, including Jack Turban, MD. Now we’ve documented more than 578 men who have taken athletic opportunities from girls and women, accelerating sharply in the past few years.)

Mariah Burton Nelson, former Stanford and pro basketball player, author, and columnist at Stronger Women, and member of the Women’s Sports Policy Working Group: I played basketball for Stanford and later in the pros in France and the U.S.. At Stanford I was the leading scorer and rebounder all four years, and one rebounding record was unbroken for 20 years. This experience shaped me, led to my being drafted by the New Jersey Gems of the WBL and also the best team in France, and launched my career as a writer specializing in the empowerment of women through sports. That positive experience would NOT have happened if a bigger, stronger man who identifies as transgender had played on my team or played against me on other teams. His size, strength, and maleness (regardless of his identity) would have distracted all of us, enraged many of us, and resulted in blocked shots, scoring and rebounding records, and other indignities because of his inherent athletic advantages. Everyone knows men are, on average, bigger and stronger. This is not mitigated via testosterone suppression.

NCAA, please do right by your female athletes. Do not let male athletes who ‘identify’ as women take precedence. They are not ‘banned’ from sport; they can play in the men’s category, where they belong. Women’s sports are for women.”

Tracy Sundlun, CEO, Everything Running, Inc., Founding Board Member, National Scholastic Athletics Foundation. Co-Founder and Director of the National Scholastic Indoor & Outdoor Track & Field Championships (1984 – Present), Co-Founder, Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series, and founding member of the Women’s Sports Policy Working Group: “Beginning in the late 1960s, I coached girls and women of all ages and abilities in all track and field events, including collegiately at Georgetown, the University of Southern California, and the University of Colorado, and in 6 Olympic Games. While every one of those hundreds of girls and women would probably say that they supported the right of males who identify as transgender to participate in and be welcomed into life and society, including sports, they would remark about men’s athletic abilities. They would say that males, however they identify, cannot do so in competitive sports at any level as their participation would come at the expense of biological females. Since the issue first raised its ugly head several years ago, a wealth of scientific evidence has shown that beginning in vitro, males have a physiological advantage over females. The science should guide the imperative for the NCAA to protect women’s categories for both competitive fairness and safety. Males who identify as transgender could have their own competitive category or compete in the men’s – a re-classified “open” category, so as not to take competitive opportunities from females. Please do right and join us in protecting the female sports category!”