Concerned Women for America of North Dakota State Director Linda Thorson applauds the passage of the fairness for female athletes bill by the North Dakota legislature. Read the full press release.
Our YWA leaders have a powerful message on the importance of protecting Title IX and women’s sports. 
YWA Challenge: Make a Video. Stand up for Title IX. Protect Women’s Sports.
The Left’s attempt to undermine Title IX by allowing biological men to compete in women’s sports is a direct attack on you, your generation, and the lives of women to come. Attacks on Title IX set back decades of progress. NOW is the time for you to lead this conversation.
Here’s what you can do:
- Film a 30-second video of yourself sharing why Title IX and the protection of women’s sports is so important to you.
- Orient your phone horizontally.
- End the video with this statement: “Protect Women’s Sports. Stand up for Title IX.”
- Send the video to [email protected]
- Invite your friends to do the same!
Get creative with the backdrop and/or your attire. You can film anywhere BUT if you play a sport, utilize that as a backdrop (basketball court, volleyball court, track, etc.)
Ideas for talking points:
- Men and women are biologically different. Men have a proven biological advantage over women.
- Title IX was created for the express purpose of ensuring a fair playing field for women and girls.
- Female athletes are actively losing championship spots to male-born athletes.
- The loss for girls goes beyond high school sports as it impacts college scholarship opportunities.
- Most of all – make it personal. This is a short video, and people need to hear why this topic matters to you.
- Don’t forget to end with “Protect Women’s Sports. Stand up for Title IX.”
Concerned Women for America of North Dakota, Linda Thorson, testified before the House Human Services Committee in support of HB1298, a bill that seeks to protect fair competition and equality in women’s sports that is now under threat.
Watch my committee testimony (start at 3:10 mark).
Democrat Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) and Republican Markwayne Mullin (R-Oklahoma) have joined hands across the aisle to protect the rights of female athletes under Title IX, the federal law that ensures equal opportunities and benefits in education on the basis of sex. A former 2020 Democrat presidential candidate and four-term member of Congress, Gabbard has bucked the Democrat party’s lock-step campaign to repeal Title IX discrimination based on biological sex and replace the definition of sex with gender identity. This manipulation of Title IX’s intent gives any male the chance to claim transgender status and compete on women’s sports teams.
In the first demonstration of bipartisanship on this issue, Reps Gabbard and Mullin introduced the Protect Women’s Sports Act patterned after a bill introduced earlier this year by Republican House members Greg Steube (R-Florida) and Debbie Lesko (R-Arizona). The legislation has a straightforward objective: reaffirm Title IX’s intent based on biological sex and require schools receiving federal funds to abide by this biological distinction in women’s sports in order to comply with federal civil rights law.
By opposing male transgender participation in women’s sports, Gabbard makes a significant statement about the current extremism of her party denying equality of rights for women and girls as female.
In 1972, Title IX provided landmark protections for female students in education by prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex. This opened a world of new opportunities for women and girls in academics and athletics that has become commonplace three generations later. Most girls today have no idea what their predecessors fought to achieve and won – nor what they stand to lose.
But some female student-athletes, like Selina Soule, Chelsea Mitchell and Alanna Smith in Connecticut; Madison Kenyon and Mary Kate Marshall in Idaho; and the daughter of world-champion track athlete Cynthia Monteleone in Hawaii, have faced a different reality as they were forced to compete on an unfair playing field against biological males identifying as girls and forfeit the chance to succeed as they should.
Activism around transgender inclusion in women’s sports is sidelining the achievements of female student-athletes, putting their safety at risk, and silencing their voices. It is also rewriting the purpose of what Title IX was enacted to protect. Democrats have been hypocritical about this discrimination against women and girls, choosing to ignore biological truths that matter in sports (and facilities) and bowing instead to transactivist demands that deny the rights of females who have the most to lose.
In a statement on the Protect Women’s Sports Act, Gabbard declares, ”Our legislation protects Title IX’s original intent which was based on the general biological distinction between men and women athletes based on sex. It is critical that the legacy of Title IX continues to ensure women and girls in sports have the opportunity to compete and excel on a level playing field.”
Mullins, the father of wrestlers including three daughters, had this to say, ”As the father of three girls involved in athletics, I want them to be able to compete on a level playing field. I am proud to lead this bill that will safeguard the integrity of women’s sports and ensure female athletes can compete fairly.”
By reclaiming Title IX protections for female athletes, Tulsi Gabbard is challenging the Democrat party establishment. Her retirement from Congress now leaves the mission to display the same courage to others. Perhaps they can be persuaded by the substantial majorities of Americans who oppose male trans-athletes competing against females in women’s sports. As Gabbard’s support and partnership with Mullin make clear, this should not be a partisan issue, but a matter of biological reality, fair play, and common sense – principles that should unite us.
Doreen Denny is Vice President of Government Relations for Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee.
Concerned Women for America’s Vice President of Government Relations, Doreen Denny, was interview by Verily magazine concerning Title IX and female athletics. Read the entire article here.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 16, 2020
Contact: Doreen Denny, Vice President of Government Relations
(202) 420-1491, [email protected]
University Forced to Rescind Transgender Policy as Violation of Title IX
after Biological Male wins NCAA Championship in Women’s Track
Action Resolves Concerned Women for America Sex Discrimination Complaint
Washington, D.C. – Today, Concerned Women for America (CWA) received notice that the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has resolved CWA’s civil rights complaint in women’s sports against Franklin Pierce University (FPU). OCR agreed with CWA that FPU’s transgender sports participation and inclusion policy is in violation of Title IX, which prohibits discrimination in educational programs and activities, including athletics, on the basis of sex.
Under the Resolution Agreement, the New Hampshire university, a Division II school in the Northeast-10 Conference, “will rescind its Transgender Participation and Inclusion Policy and will cease any and all practices related thereto.” FPU’s policy is similar to current NCAA policy that reportedly is under review and on the agenda for consideration by the Board of Governors at their October meeting later this month.
Penny Nance, CWA’s CEO and President had this to say:
“This Resolution Agreement is the first victory for college female athletes being forced to compete on an unfair playing field against males claiming transgender status and competing in women’s sports. We thank the Department of Education for upholding Title IX, which was passed into law 48 years ago to give women and girls equal opportunities in sports based on biological sex.
“Transgender policies have turned Title IX on its head, denying the rights of women and girl athletes to compete only against athletes of the same sex and threatening the future of women’s sports. Federal action against Franklin Pierce University is a warning shot to the NCAA and every college and university in America to back off policies that discriminate against female student-athletes and restore fairness and equity in women’s sports.”
CWA’s complaint was filed last year after a Franklin Pierce University student-athlete, who previously had competed on the men’s track team, transitioned to compete as a member of the women’s team and won a national title at the 2019 Division II NCAA Track and Field Championships in the Women’s 400-meter hurdles.
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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.
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!
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.
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.
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:
Vice President for Government Relations, Doreen Denny published an opinion piece in the Washington Times calling for President Trump to step in and save women’s sports.
“What’s happening right now in college sports should be a wakeup call to all American women. Title IX is under attack, and women’s sports are being compromised. Repeat assaults make a federal response all the more urgent.
Last week, the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights notified Concerned Women for America that it has opened an investigation into our complaint that Franklin Pierce University has violated Title IX by permitting male transgender athletes to compete on women’s teams. This is the first federal investigation of its kind in college sports.
Title IX is a federal law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs and activities. Every school in America receiving federal funds, K-12 through college, is required to follow Title IX law prohibiting sex discrimination. Sex has never been defined as anything but male and female.”
In a recent opinion piece featured in the Daily Caller, Doreen Denny – CWA’s Senior Director of Government Relations explains why it’s now up to the Federal Government to keep our precious children safe in places like restrooms and locker rooms.
“It’s up to the Trump administration to keep students in the right restrooms and locker rooms, because the courts are taking a pass. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case Joel Doe, et. al v. Boyertown Area School District challenging students’ rights to sex-specific facilities. Even so, the Trump administration has a job to do: enforce federal law.
The federal government is obligated under Title IX to prohibit discrimination “on the basis of sex.” No federal law has defined sex to mean anything but it’s biological fact: male and female — period.
Boyertown students sued their school district for mandating use of restrooms and locker rooms based on “gender identity” not biological sex. Alexis Lightcap, one of the plaintiffs, described the fallout: “Why is it so hard for school officials to understand that young girls care about the privacy of their bodies? It’s natural for us and our parents to worry about who might walk in on us in a vulnerable moment. The school bureaucracy has no right to say my privacy is irrelevant.”
