Phoenix, Arizona – On Thursday, January 11, Concerned Women for America (CWA), the nation’s largest public policy women’s organization, will join female athletes, coaches, parents, and policy leaders in a rally outside the annual convention of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in Phoenix, Arizona, to demand that the organization, the governing body for collegiate sports, stop discriminating against female athletes.  

The NCAA’s “Transgender Student-Athlete Participation Policy” allows males who identify as women to play women’s sports if they suppress their natural testosterone for one year and meet certain sport-specific levels. The NCAA adopted this policy despite scientific studies that prove testosterone suppression cannot eliminate the male athletic advantage. 

“The NCAA has turned its back on thousands of female athletes,” said Macy Petty, an NCAA volleyball player in her senior year and a Young Women for America leader. “Now under Charlie Baker’s leadership, the NCAA continues to forsake our safety and opportunity to compete on an equal playing field to cater to the desire of a few.” Petty competed against a male athlete identifying as a female and has been speaking out against NCAA’s policies throughout her college career. As a current athlete, she will be attending the NCAA meeting. 

The rally is sponsored by a Our Bodies, Our Sports coalition of women’s advocacy groups that includes CWA and its collegiate program Young Women for America, along with the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS), Independent Women’s Forum, Champion Women, Fair Play For Women, Women’s Sports Policy Working Group, Women’s Declaration International, U.S., Women’s Liberation Front, International Consortium on Female Sports, LGB Alliance, Independent Women’s Law Center, and Texas Values.

RALLY DETAILS:

Following the rally calling on the NCAA to stop discrimination, the athletes, coaches, parents, and sponsor organizations will hand deliver a new demand letter and petition to the NCAA signed by thousands of female athletes from across the country.

WHAT:  Our Bodies, Our Sports: We Won’t Back Down Rally
WHEN:  January 11, 2024, at 11:00 a.m. MT (1:00 p.m. ET)
WHERE: Marvin A Andrews Plaza, Activity outside of the NCAA Convention in Phoenix, Arizona
WHY:  Rally for women athletes and single-sex athletic competition

Many current and former college athletes will be speaking, including:

• Kylee Alons, 31x All American swimmer, 2x NCAA National Champion, 5x ACC Champion, and Young Women for America ambassador
• Macy Petty, NCAA volleyball player and Young Women for America ambassador
• Riley Gaines, 12x All American swimmer, 5x SEC Champion and record holder, and Independent Women’s Forum ambassador
• Paula Scanlan, former University of Pennsylvania swimmer and Independent Women’s Forum ambassador
• Kim Russell, former Head Women’s Lacrosse Coach at Oberlin College and Independent Women’s Forum ambassador

“NCAA female athletes are under attack by an insidious form of sex discrimination driven by identity politics and condoned by cowards on campuses unwilling to stand up for real women’s rights. None of the NCAA agenda at this meeting matters for current and future college female athletes so long as the very question of what it means to be a woman athlete in women’s sports remains up for grabs,” wrote Doreen Denny, CWA Senior Advisor in FOX.com editorial. 

“NCAA President Charlie Baker had his moment to take the reins and address this high-profile failure in women’s sports – and he missed it.” 

In March 2022, CWA filed a civil rights complaint under Title IX against the University of Pennsylvania for allowing Lia Thomas, a biological male swimmer, to compete in the NCAA championships in female competition.

For more information on the rally and other information, please contact comms@cwfa.org.