Category

Sexual Exploitation

Oct 03 2020
0

Safety First Online Starts at Home

By | Education, Legislative Updates, News and Events, Sexual Exploitation | No Comments

By Amy Lidell, Intern for Concerned Women for America

Last week the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) partnered with the White House, Justice Department, and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to host a live stream webinar promoting online safety for children. Ivanka Trump and Attorney General William Barr opened the webinar voicing their support for the safety movement while outlining some of the risks children face online.

Screen time in 2020 increased significantly as a result of the required social distancing connected to the coronavirus pandemic, and online enticement is up by a minimum of 20 percent. Attorney General Barr voiced his concern for the amplified dependency on technology for social interaction, stating, “Unfortunately, the same technology that connects us with family and friends also provides predators with a pathway back into our homes and can be used for strangers who want to target, groom, and sexually exploit our children.”  Internet safety is more important than ever. We are all harmed when children are exploited online.

Safety First promotes a culture of safety over a value of privacy for online predators. An individual’s privacy cannot take priority over a child’s online vulnerability. Ivanka Trump discussed the importance of standing behind sexual assault victims and allowing their voices to be heard while becoming proactive in preventing online exploitation from happening in American homes. DHS Chief Chad Wolf added that proactive conversations with kids about online safety make them less vulnerable.

NCMEC leaders spoke on ways to successfully direct difficult conversations with kids of all ages about online activity. They showed that the earlier these conversations take place within a family, the more likely parents successfully prevent online enticement, sexting, sextortion, and any other inappropriate interaction with strangers or predators.

NCMEC has provided fun, age-appropriate workbooks on its website to provide parents and teachers an outlet to teach kids about online safety. These workbooks help navigate uncomfortable discussions about saying no to online strangers and avoiding traps used by predators to lure kids into inappropriate correspondence. Physical contact is not needed for an online offender, and it is alarming how direct predator requests become towards a child when direct action is not taken immediately.

We encourage you to learn more about the Safety First movement and join Concerned Women for America in taking the NCMEC Safety Pledge to continue learning how to be critical role models for kids through your online activity, presence, and conversation.

Sep 22 2020
0

Press Release: Senate Conservatives Stand with Female Student-Athletes

By | Legislative Updates, News and Events, Press Releases, Sexual Exploitation, Women's Sports | No Comments

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 22, 2020

Contact: Doreen Denny, Vice President of Government Relations
(202) 420-1491, [email protected]

Senate Conservatives Stand with Female
Student-Athletes to Protect Title IX from Bostock Fallout

Washington, D.C. – Today, Sens. Kelly Loeffler (R-Georgia), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), Mike Lee (R-Utah), James Lankford (R-Oklahoma), and Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) introduced the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2020.”  This legislation would clarify schools’ responsibility under Title IX to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex from being overruled by allowing males claiming transgender status to participate in women’s sports.

Penny Nance, CEO and President of Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee, welcomed this landmark bill as necessary to protect women’s rights in the fight for a fair playing field for female student-athletes who are being forced in interscholastic competition and the NCAA to compete against athletes who are physically male but asserting identity as women or girls:

“Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee thanks Sens. Loeffler, Blackburn, Lee, Lankford, and Cotton for standing with us at the forefront of the fight to protect equal opportunity in women’s sports. We applaud their leadership in the U.S. Senate introducing the “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2020,” which recognizes that female student-athletes are denied their rights when Title IX is not used to defend them.

“Today, our daughter athletes are being bullied by activists and sidelined by silence.  They simply want to compete on a level playing field against athletes of their own sex.  That is what Title IX achieved for female student-athletes over 40 years ago. We urge all members of the Senate to work to preserve the rights of women and girls on the basis of biological sex. Women and girls, regardless of political persuasion, deserve to have the laws that protect us respected and followed, ensuring equal opportunities and benefits in sports for all female athletes.”

###

Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee (CWALAC) is the legislation and advocacy arm of Concerned Women for America, the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization with a rich 40-year history of helping our members across the country bring Biblical principles into all levels of public policy.

Sep 08 2020
0

DeVos Stands With Female Athletes Forced to Face Transgender Competitors

By | Legislative Updates, News and Events, Sexual Exploitation, Women's Sports | No Comments

Read Concerned Women for America’s Vice President of Government Relations, Doreen Denny, op-ed in CNS-News online.

“It’s Official! Bostock Does Not Overrule Biology under Title IX,” says Doreen Denny, Concerned Women for America’s Vice President of Government Relations. The U.S.  Department of Education (ED) has heard Concerned Women for America’s plea to stand strong in defense of fairness and equity for female student-athletes by asserting that the Supreme Court decision in Bostock does not overrule biological sex under Title IX!  On September 1, 2020, CWA received a landmark response to a letter sent to Secretary Betsy DeVos urging her “to take proactive measures to ensure consistency, equality, and fair play in every athletics department in every educational institution across the country.”

On June 25, 2020, marking the 48th Anniversary of Title IX, CEO and President, Penny Nance, sent a letter thanking  Secretary DeVos and the Trump Administration for their support to protect a fair playing field for female student-athletes, including Selina Soule and her teammates in Connecticut who had been forced under state policy to compete in high school track against biological male students identifying as girls.

CWA’s letter to Secretary DeVos also emphasized the need for further decisive action:

“The battle to protect the integrity and fairness of women’s sports is ground zero in the fight for women’s rights. As mothers, daughters, granddaughters, sisters all, we urge you to heed our plea to stand firmly for our rights as women and take bold actions to ensure Title IX is protected at every level of education in our country.”

This week, ED’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) responded to CWA with an emphatic determination of policy detailing why the Supreme Court decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, the case that extended transgender status to employment discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, cannot be used to deny protection from discrimination based on biological sex under Title IX.

OCR’s letter to CWA unequivocally states ED’s “commitment to ensuring that Title IX is vigorously enforced at every level of education.” It also provides legal justification for why the Bostock decision does not control ED’s responsibility under Title IX or its regulations, concluding:

“The Supreme Court’s opinion in Bostock does not affect the Department’s position that its Title IX regulations authorize single-sex teams based only on biological sex at birth – male or female – as opposed to a person’s gender identity.”

OCR’s Acting Assistant Secretary, Kimberly Richey, also assures CWA that ED will continue its work to enforce Title IX and investigate complaints. CWA has filed two civil rights complaints at the college level, against Franklin Pierce University and the University of Montana, for allowing male athletes who changed their gender identity to compete and win national and conference NCAA titles against female athletes:

“The Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is responsible for enforcing Title IX, and the Department remains committed to the full, fair, and effective enforcement of that statute. Please be assured that OCR will continue to investigate all complaints under Title IX thoroughly, including those related to female athletics.”

In addition to the letter to CWA, OCR issued its interpretation of the Bostock decision in a Revised Letter of Impending Enforcement Action in the complaint against the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference and member school districts. In its ruling, ED asserts its regulatory mandate and enforcement authority to uphold the equal benefits and opportunities required under Title IX on the basis of biological sex.

As court cases continue in Connecticut and Idaho seeking to defend the rights of women and girl student-athletes to compete on an equal playing field against other female athletes, judges should heed ED’s authority over Title IX and give this official position the deference it deserves.

It is also critical that the government’s official position on Title IX in light of Bostock – which, in addition to athletics, permits separate living facilities, “toilet, locker room, and shower facilities on the basis of sex” – gets in the hands of every state lawmaker, school board, and local school district in America. This is a definitive statement of Title IX policy that all schools and universities receiving federal funds must follow. Please help make that happen by sharing the letter to CWA with these officials today!

Aug 11 2020
0

CWALAC Endorses Focus on Protecting Children and Taxpayers from the Destructive Cost of Gender Reassignment

By | Blog, Legislative Updates, News and Events, Sexual Exploitation | No Comments

Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee’s (CWALAC) impact on policy was on display as several members of Congress, led by Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-California), introduced legislation responding to the alarming acceleration of “gender reassignment” interventions causing irreversible harm to children and violating the conscience rights of federal taxpayers. The “Protecting Children from Experimentation Act” and the” End Taxpayer Funding of Gender Experimentation Act” aim to shield children and taxpayers from the deceptive push to “normalize” gender reassignment and promote destructive transgender medical practices using drugs and surgeries.

At the national and state levels, CWALAC has been working to educate lawmakers on the radical, irreversible medical treatments being exploited by an activist medical community, including unethical research supported by the National Institutes of Health to deal with the psychological condition of gender dysphoria.

In announcing the bills, Rep. LaMalfa said, “Our society has quickly ‘normalized’ gender experimentation under the guise of an ‘accepting’ political ideology rather than biological reality. Even more troubling, children are undergoing experimental treatments, like being injected with puberty-blocking hormones and cross-sex hormones, which have irreversible consequences, such as permanent sterility.”

Doreen Denny, CWALAC Vice President of Government Relations, offered this statement of support:

“Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee (CWALAC) agrees children who struggle with identity should be protected from harmful ‘gender reassignment’ medical practices causing serious health risks, irreversible damage, and increasingly, regret. Minors are incapable of giving informed consent to destructive medical interventions degrading their development and sterilizing their bodies. Unfortunately, the Big Gender market is more interested in profit than ethical practice.  CWALAC applauds Rep LaMalfa’s proposals standing against the medical mutilation of minors in the name of ‘gender confirmation,’ and the use of federal tax dollars to finance radical gender reassignment interventions.”

To read the full press release announcing the legislation and its original sponsors, click here.

Aug 07 2020
0

Key Update on the NCAA & Idaho’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act

By | Legislative Updates, News and Events, Sexual Exploitation, Women's Sports | No Comments

Important Update: NCAA’s Board of Governors did not take action against Idaho for enacting the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act at their meeting on August 4. That is good news!! But the fight is not over!

A sportswriter in Idaho reported this statement: “The NCAA is working with national and international groups as it reviews its current transgender athlete policy. Inclusion and fairness are the objectives in addressing the complex set of issues. The NCAA Board of Governors will hear an update regarding the policy review at its October meeting as it considers future championship host sites. The NCAA is monitoring the lawsuit involving Idaho Bill 500 and will review the court’s decision when it is made.”

Activists are going even further in pressing the NCAA to change its policy to remove any requirement for hormone treatment for a male to compete in women’s sports. Instead, they want any male identifying as a woman to be eligible to compete in women’s sports against female athletes.

We must continue to act to protect the status of females and the integrity of women’s sports for female athletes. You can help in two ways:

  1. Over 300 female athletes signed the letter to the NCAA! We continue to gather signatures for the letter petitioning the NCAA to back off any boycott of Idaho. Please help us reach out to current or former NCAA or professional female athletes and have them Sign Here.
  2. Stand with us to protect female athletes by signing our petition to the International Olympic Committee requesting suspension of the 2015 guidelines allowing biological males to compete in women’s Olympic events. To date, Save Women’s Sports has collected over 15,000 signatures from 30 countries! Sign Here.

Thank you for joining Concerned Women for America to Save Women’s Sports!

P.S. Doreen Denny, Vice President of Government Relations, joined Washington Watch recently to discuss CWA’s effort to protect the rights of female athletes under Title IX. Listen here.

Jul 29 2020
0

CWA Supports Female Athletes Urging NCAA to Back Off Activism

By | Blog, News and Events, Press Releases, Sexual Exploitation | No Comments

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 29, 2020
Contact: Doreen Denny, Vice President of Government Relations, (202)420-1491, [email protected]

Washington, D.C. – Today, Concerned Women for America (CWA) joined partners in the fight to Save Women’s Sports supporting a letter to the NCAA Board of Governors signed by over 300 current and former NCAA and professional female athletes, including Olympians, urging them not to bow to activism requesting retaliatory action against Idaho for protecting fair play in women’s sports for female athletes.   Idaho enacted the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which is being defended in federal court by two female college track athletes who were forced to compete against a biological male athlete in the women’s category.

Penny Nance, CEO and President of Concerned Women for America, had this to say:

“It’s time for the NCAA to stand up for female athletes, not sideline their dreams.  NCAA’s black eye in women’s sports will only get darker if it retaliates against Idaho for protecting the innate status of female athletes.  Sex discrimination against women and girls has no place on fair and level playing fields.

 “Female NCAA, professional, and Olympic athletes who signed this letter speak for all women and girls across America who simply want to compete against other female athletes. This is what Title IX achieved over 40 years ago.  The NCAA has no business overturning that victory by promoting inequity in women’s athletics.

“This is not a left or right issue.  Women and girls, regardless of political affiliation, deserve to have the laws that protect us respected and followed, ensuring equal opportunities and benefits in sports for all female athletes.”

Concerned Women for America has stood at the forefront of the fight to protect equal opportunity for female athletes in women’s sports.  CWA has filed two civil rights complaints with the U.S. Department of Education at the college level against Franklin Pierce University (for winning a national NCAA title in the 400-meter women’s hurdles in 2019) and the University of Montana (for winning the NCAA Big Sky Conference indoor mile in women’s track in 2020).  Both victories involved biological male athletes who had previously competed on the men’s teams.

###

Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee (CWALAC) is the legislation and advocacy arm of Concerned Women for America, the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization with a rich 40-year history of helping our members across the country bring Biblical principles into all levels of public policy.

Jul 16 2020
0

DOJ Backs Idaho’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act

By | Blog, Legislative Updates, News and Events, Sexual Exploitation, Women's Sports | No Comments

By Lindsey Hudson, Intern for Concerned Women for America’s Government Relations Department

Idaho is spearheading the fight to protect and maintain equal opportunity and fair competition for female athletes in sports. The state saw a problem with women’s rights, safety, scholarships, and opportunities being stripped away and decided to be the first to do something about it.

Idaho enacted House Bill 500, the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act (Fairness Act) to prevent male students identifying as females from participating on female sports teams. This bill explains males have biological differences: denser, stronger bones, greater lung capacity, higher levels of testosterone. These scientific, biological differences give males an unfair advantage in athleticism when compared to female athletes. The Fairness Act signed into law on March 30, 2020, will be put into effect next month. State lawmakers in 14 additional states are in agreement with Idaho’s Fairness Act and have acted by proposing similar legislation. Through their legislators, citizens across the U.S. are seeking to preserve fair competition in women’s sports. Yet, certain organizations continue to actively oppose this form of equal opportunity.

The state’s brave actions towards protecting women’s rights are facing unjustifiable pushback from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The progressive, leftist organization immediately filed a lawsuit contesting Idaho’s Fairness Act. The ACLU also sent a letter to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), pressuring the sports association to boycott Idaho from holding any NCAA sporting events.

Despite these threats to the Fairness Act, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has rightly spoken up to back the constitutionality of the bill. DOJ’s Attorney General William P. Barr states this on the action: “Allowing biological males to compete in all-female sports is fundamentally unfair to female athletes. Under the Constitution, the Equal Protection Clause allows Idaho to recognize the physiological differences between the biological sexes in athletics.”

DOJ’s involvement in the federal lawsuit gives needed lift in protecting female athletes’ rights, especially those facing the problem on the front lines. Mary Kate Marshall and Madison Kenyon, two Idaho college track athletes who have faced this unjust competition in the Big Sky Conference, have joined the state of Idaho in defense of the Fairness Act, opposing the ACLU’s lawsuit. Victory in this case would ensure female athletes continued equal opportunity in championships, scholarships, and fairly competing at their best.

The track and cross-country athlete, Madison Kenyon, had this to say: “Sex separation in sports helps ensure that males and females each enjoy opportunities for fair competition and victory. It helps ensure that if women like me work hard, that hard work pays off, and we have a shot at winning.”

This summer marked the 48th anniversary of Title IX, the federal civil rights law that prohibits students participating in any education program or activity from being discriminated against on the basis of sex. Title IX established a way for female student-athletes to have equal opportunity and fair competition within women’s sports. According to The Women’s Sports Foundation, only one in 27 girls participated in school sports before Title IX, but since the creation of Title IX, two in five girls now participate in school sports. We must now realize that by allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports, female student-athletes will be hindered in participating and fairly competing in the long run.

The Trump Justice Department’s support, state lawmakers’ proposed legislation, and citizens speaking up for fairness and equity in women’s sports competition are big wins for conserving female athletes’ rights. The conflict has not been won, however, due to intense activist opposition. Concerned Women for America urges you to use your voice to support an equal playing field for all female student-athletes.

ACT NOW:  It’s time for the NCAA to defend, not undermine, female athletes. If you are a current or former NCAA or professional female athlete who cares about fairness in women’s sports, please sign this letter to the NCAA! The deadline to sign is July 24.

Jul 02 2020
0

Transgenderism’s War On Women Betrays Left’s Claims To Champion Our Rights

By | Blog, CEO, News and Events, Sexual Exploitation | No Comments

While our two organizations, Concerned Women for America and the Women’s Liberation Front, could hardly be farther apart on issues like abortion and same-sex marriage, we share a growing concern over much of the political left’s recent policy agenda for women.

A flurry of lawsuits is pressuring the Department of Defense to allow service members to identify into being recognized as a member of the opposite sex. This endorses the misguided notion that it would be safe to allow frontline combat troops to have inaccurate medical information stamped onto their dog tags, and completely disregards the physical privacy and dignity of female service members who would be required to share sleep and shower facilities with male colleagues.

The serious ramifications of forcing the military to falsify official records of sex doesn’t only open all branches of the service to civil rights liability, it creates immediate risks for the brave women who volunteer to serve our country.

For civilians, global news stories about the COVID-19 stay-at-home orders were quickly followed by stories from every part of the world about an increase in family and intimate partner violence against women. Yet the left continues to press for a version of the Violence Against Women Act that would make federal funding for women’s shelters and prisons contingent on allowing men to identify into being allowed to stay with women, instead of other men, on the basis of gender identity.

Both of our organizations include women who’ve survived domestic violence, as well as members deeply committed to women’s crisis shelters. We are appalled that this still-inadequate measure to ensure the safety of the most desperate, at-risk women is being derided as “exclusionary,” when approximately three women a day are murdered by current or former partners. Not even this means of preventing a leading cause of women’s deaths can now be for us.

… Click here to continue reading this important op-ed as featured on The Federalist.

Jun 29 2020
0
Penny Nance at Protect Women Protect Life rally at Supreme Court

Conservative Women Decry Chief Justice Roberts’ Politically Correct Jurisprudence

By | Blog, Legal, News and Events, Press Releases, SCOTUS, Sexual Exploitation | No Comments

Washington, D.C.— Today, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in June Medical Services v. Russo, invalidating a law meant to protect women by raising the standard of care to an acceptable level in cases of abortion. Penny Nance, CEO and President of Concerned Women for America had this to say:

“What a disappointment Chief Justice John Roberts has turned out to be. June Medical Services v. Russo is about whether the abortion industry in Louisiana should receive special exemption from state regulators or should be held to the same standard of medical care that other outpatient procedures require.  Doctors must have hospital admitting privileges for a colonoscopy, why not for abortion?  Do women deserve the same standard of care for emergencies or not?  The state of Louisiana wants to require that abortion doctors have admitting privileges, but the left sees this as a threat to their unregulated abortion agenda.

“It’s unconscionable that abortion clinics have been given a special carve out shielding them from the responsibility for providing a standard of care that a woman deserves under any circumstance.  CWA does not believe abortion is health care.  But the left is hypocritical when it claims that abortion is health care and then opposes requiring doctors to have the full responsibility of a medical provider as an ‘unconstitutional burden.’

“Conservatives must face the fact that we still face a liberal majority in the most important cases at the Supreme Court. When it matters most, some conservative justices have unfortunately shown themselves to be susceptible to the politically correct mob’s demands.

“The hundreds of thousands of women I represent will not let up. We will redouble our efforts to make sure more courageous justices are appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“What this case ultimately demonstrates is that the fight for life is the fight for women’s rights. We are not discouraged. We are not deterred. We will fight, and we will win. For life. For Women.”

Laura Huber, State Director, Concerned Women for America of Louisiana, had this to say:

“The Supreme Court today failed the women of Louisiana. It was we who demanded these protections from our elected officials. But the Supreme Court, once again, imposes itself over the will of the people and enacts their preferred liberal policies by judicial fiat. Women are not free to decide for themselves in the case of abortion. The Supreme Court will dictate what we can and cannot do with our laws. Shame on these five justices who stood against women today. We are especially disappointed to see the Chief Justice, who acknowledges the decision upon which they decided this case was wrongly decided, still let himself be bullied into the politically correct position. But we are not deterred. We will continue to fight for women. We will continue to speak for those who can’t speak for themselves. We will continue to fight for life.”

Jun 26 2020
0

CWA Thanks Secretary of Education

By | Blog, CEO, Education, Legislative Updates, News and Events, Sexual Exploitation, Women's Sports | No Comments

Cute Filipina Female Athlete

As we recognize the 48th Anniversary of Title IX this week, Penny Nance sent a letter to Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos encouraging decisive action to enforce Title IX’s mandate of equal opportunity and protection on the basis of biological sex, including for female athletes.  She also requested action on CWA’s civil rights complaints against two universities for violating the Title IX rights of female college athletes because they rostered male athletes identifying as women to compete on their women’s teams, winning conference and national championships:

“On behalf of the hundreds of thousands of women supporters of Concerned Women for America (CWA) around the nation, I want to thank you and the Trump Administration for the Department of Education’s (ED) support to protect female student-athletes under Title IX. We also write to urge you to take proactive measures to ensure consistency, equality, and fair play in every athletics department in every educational institution across the country…

“CWA currently has two complaints before ED’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR), where two institutions (Franklin Pierce University and the University of Montana) have engaged in blatant violations of Title IX protections for female student-athletes by allowing biological men to compete on women’s teams in athletic competitions, inflicting irreparable inequity and injury to their college careers…

“The battle to protect the integrity and fairness of women’s sports is ground zero in the fight for women’s rights. As mothers, daughters, granddaughters, sisters all, we urge you to heed our plea to stand firmly for our rights as women and take bold actions to ensure Title IX is protected at every level of education in our country.”

Read the entire letter to Secretary DeVos here.

Jun 24 2020
0

Join Us! CWA Launches Summer Speaker Series

By | Blog, News and Events, Sexual Exploitation | No Comments

Concerned Women for America (CWA) is hosting a series of virtual events this summer that spotlight one of our seven core issues. We are launching the first of the series this Thursday, June 25, with an emphasis on the core issue of sexual exploitation. The topic will be “Saving Women’s Sports.”

Background:
This week marks the 48th Anniversary of Title IX. As a reminder, Title IX is the federal civil rights law that protects women from sex discrimination in educational programs, including sports. CWA is standing for female athletes whose rights are being violated under Title IX when male athletes identifying as girls are taking their place.

We are excited to have as our first guest speaker Beth Stelzer, the founder of  Save Women’s Sports. Beth is an amateur powerlifter, and she will share with us her unique personal story about transgender athlete participation in her sport. Beth stresses that defending women in athletics ought not be a partisan nor religious issue. Beth says, “If we allow males to compete in female sports, there will be men’s sports; there will be co-ed sports, but there will no longer be women’s sports.”  

Here are the details:
Date: Thursday, June 25, 2020
Time: 1:00 – 2:00 EST
Registration:

  • Registration is free but required for this Zoom event.
  • Click here to register. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

We hope you will join us for this educational and timely event. Be sure to invite your friends and family. Space is limited so be sure to register today!

Jun 22 2020
0

Protecting Fair Play for Women’s College Sports

By | Blog, News and Events, Sexual Exploitation, Women's Sports | No Comments
[vc_row type=”in_container” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” overlay_strength=”0.3″][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]Editor’s Note: This week marks the 48th Anniversary of Title IX being enacted into law. This groundbreaking civil rights law prohibits sex discrimination in educational programs and activities that receive federal financial assistance. It paved the way for female students to have equal opportunities in school athletics vastly multiplying female opportunity and participation in sports. Join us in our efforts to #SaveGirlsSports.

CWA’s Government Relations Intern shares her personal story as she discusses the importance of requiring a fair playing field for female athletes:

The first time I came face-to-face with the issue of fair play and equal opportunity for women in sports occurred while I was in my junior year of college. I competed on Liberty University’s Taekwondo Sports Team in 2018. The team competed against Ivy League universities around the U.S., such as the Eastern Collegiate Taekwondo Conference and the Atlantic Collegiate Alliance of Taekwondo. During practice one day, our coach pulled the female athletes aside and made us aware of the fact that certain competitions now allowed males who identified themselves as females to compete against females. He went on to explain that if one of us did not feel comfortable fighting against a male, then she was not obligated to do so. I remember thinking how it would be unfair to me and all of my fellow female teammates, who had trained long and hard for months, to end up being paired to spar with a male at one of these competitions. In fact, our coach mentioned how highly competitive teams might take advantage of this policy of permitting biological males to compete against females to achieve greater success and to win the overall team award. A female Taekwondo athlete should not be in a situation that forces her to either forfeit a match or compete in an unfair fight.

Unfairness in women’s sports impacts female college athletes in the U.S. today and is something that continues to spread throughout all educational levels. Colleges and high schools that have allowed males identifying as females to compete in women’s sports have proved to be detrimental to female athletes everywhere. At the college level, Franklin Pierce University, located in Rindge, New Hampshire, was awarded the 2019 NCAA title when a biological male on its women’s team won the 400-meter women’s hurdles. The University of Montana permitted a former male cross-country team winner to transfer to the female cross-country team and win gold in the 2020 Big Sky Conference Championship indoor mile. At the high school level, female athletic students have filed lawsuits, due to unjustifiable losses in women’s sports scholarships. Multiple examples and scientific research confirm that biological differences, levels of testosterone, and puberty gives the biological male the upper hand in athleticism.

As we recognize the anniversary of Title IX, enacted on June 23, 1972, it is imperative that our nation remember and defend the civil rights law’s intention: enable women equal opportunity and fair competition within sports. Now, with attempts to permit male athletes who identify as women  to compete in any and every women’s college sport, social progress seems to be reverting, women’s rights are being threatened, and females are being discriminated against on the basis of sex.

Concerned Women for America has taken a stand to protect women’s rights as athletes in its support of H.R 5702, Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2020, which protects Title IX. This legislation secures women’s and girls’ right to fairly compete in athletics. Under H.R. 5702, it is a federal violation for males, identifying as females, to compete in government funded, sponsored, and facilitated all-female sports. Rep. Greg Steube (R-Florida) sponsored this bill, which to date has only 15 co-sponsors. CWA in partnership with other prominent women’s organizations has sent a coalition letter to the House of Representatives urging support for this legislation.

Please join CWA in this effort. Click here to email or tweet a message asking your U.S. Representative to cosponsor H.R. 5702 to protect and uphold Title IX and women’s sports. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

Jun 18 2020
0

Despite Bad Ruling at the Supreme Court, HHS Issues Final Rule Upholding Traditional Definition of Sex

By | Blog, Erasing Women, Legislative Updates, News and Events, Sexual Exploitation, Social / Cultural Issues | No Comments

Last year,  President Trump, through the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), proposed a rule to overturn an erroneous interpretation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that redefined the word “sex” to include “gender identity” and “termination of pregnancy.” Concerned Women for America supporters mobilized in support of this change, submitting some 2,000 comments in favor of this essential regulatory change to protect life and health.

Last week, HHS announced the final rule to make this fix permanent and in doing so reasserted the rule of law that government regulations must be consistent with laws passed by Congress. The new rule clarifies that Section 1557 of the ACA does not force a recipient of federal funding to include abortion or gender transition treatment as a mandate to comply with anti-discrimination laws based on sex.

CWA called it the Conscience Care Rule because HHS has acted to restore consistency with the First Amendment and the intent and longstanding interpretation of civil rights laws. It also upholds the integrity of pro-life policy, conscience rights, and religious liberty protections in current law.

With the Supreme Court issuing a horrible ruling this week that transgender status must now be interpreted as “sex” under Title VII workplace discrimination laws, the HHS rule change is an essential and timely clarification that the federal definition of sex discrimination under health care programs does not include abortion or gender identity, but aligns with biological sex. For many healthcare providers, performing abortions or providing sex reassignment treatment is a violation of conscience and sound medical practice.

The HHS Conscience Care Rule represents a final roll back of the Obama-era regulation which had been blocked by a federal court that agreed the mandate to redefine sex exceeded its statutory authority. It also lifts many costly regulatory requirements, such as requiring insurance companies to explain benefits in writing in 16 languages. This rule is estimated to save taxpayers $3.6 billion over five years.

We applaud the Trump Administration for holding true to the text of the ACA statute, not an activist interpretation as Obama did. Congress’ sole responsibility to write the law under Article 1 of the Constitution should not be defied by administrative activism in the executive branch or judicial activism in the courts.

May 31 2020
0

Recent Dept. of Educ. Ruling: CT Interscholastic Athletic Conference’s (CIAC) Policy Allowing Biological Males to Compete in Women’s Sports Violates Title IX

By | Blog, Connecticut, Education, Feminist / Women's Issues, Legislative Updates, News and Events, Sexual Exploitation, Women's Sports | No Comments

CWA’s Vice President of Government Relations appeared on Washington Watch with Tony Perkins to discuss the recent Department of Education ruling that the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference’s (CIAC) policy allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports violates Title IX. She was featured along with Christiana Holcomb, Legal Counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom.

Listen to the Entire Show Here and Hear Doreen Beginning at 36:30:

May 28 2020
0

Victory in Women’s Sports Civil Rights Case Carries Warning: Don’t Deny Female Athletes Equal Opportunity

By | Blog, Culture, Feminist / Women's Issues, Legislative Updates, News and Events, Press Releases, Sexual Exploitation, Social / Cultural Issues, Women's Sports | No Comments

Washington, D.C. – Concerned Women for America (CWA) applauds the U.S. Department of Education (ED) for taking a significant step in the fight to protect the integrity of women’s sports. The ED Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has correctly ruled that the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) and associated schools are in violation of Title IX regulations prohibiting sex discrimination for denying female student-athletes benefits and opportunities in girls’ track by allowing the participation of male students. Among the findings: “CIAC treated students differently based on sex, by denying opportunities and benefits to female student-athletes that were available to male student-athletes.”

CWA filed a similar civil rights complaint at the college level against Franklin Pierce University for unfairly winning a national NCAA title in the 400-meter women’s hurdles with a biological male athlete.  That case is still under investigation by OCR, and we believe a similar action should follow.

Penny Nance, CEO and President of Concerned Women for America, had this to say:

“Concerned Women for America supporters from around the country have stood at the forefront of the fight to protect equal opportunity in women’s sports.  We applaud the Office for Civil Rights for finally taking action to recognize that female athletes are being denied their rights and that schools are violating the law.

“From middle school sports to the Olympics, our daughter athletes are being bullied by activists and sidelined by silence. They simply want to compete on a level playing field against athletes of their own sex. That is what Title IX achieved for female athletes over 40 years ago.

“The ruling in this case shows just how twisted and off-track women’s sports has become, and it carries a warning for all schools: don’t deny female athletes equal opportunity. CWA urges swift action on our complaint in college sports where the NCAA and member schools continue to trample the rights of female college athletes.

“This is not a left or right issue.  Women and girls, regardless of political persuasion, deserve to have the laws that protect us respected and followed, ensuring equal opportunities and benefits in sports for all female athletes.”

May 20 2020
0

Bearing the Burden of Proof: What the 1990’s in the Senate Should Have Taught Joe Biden

By | Blog, Feminist / Women's Issues, Legislative Updates, News and Events, Politics/National Sovereignty, Sexual Exploitation, Social / Cultural Issues | No Comments

CWA’s Vice President of Government Relations Doreen Denny published the following op-ed in Townhall:

“Joe Biden is now bearing the burden of proof from 27-year-old sexual assault allegations from former staffer Tara Reade. Reviewing the lessons members of Congress should have learned in the 1990’s – lessons from the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings to the Contract with America– makes Biden’s tone-deaf denials even more fantastical.

In 1994, midway through President Bill Clinton’s first term, the Contract with America galvanized voters in federal elections with its pledge to make Congress more accountable to the American people. Its success installed a Republican majority in the House and Senate who promised major legislative reforms, the first being to apply all laws to Congress that apply to the rest of the country.

In 1995, as soon as the 104th Congress was sworn in, Republicans went to work to pass the Congressional Accountability Act. To symbolize their high priority for action, it was introduced as H.R. 1 in the House and S. 2 in the Senate. The bill proposed to extend the same workplace protections against discrimination required of the private sector to the legislative branch. Until then, Congress had not been willing or accountable to live under standards they imposed on the rest of American workplaces, including laws against sexual harassment and assault.”

Read Doreen’s Entire Piece Here:

 

ABOUT

TRENDING ISSUES

RESOURCES

MEDIA

YWA

DONATE

© 2021 CWALAC. Privacy & Terms. All Rights Reserved