Washington, D.C. – On National Girls and Women in Sports Day, Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee (CWALAC), representing hundreds of thousands of women and girls across the country, has endorsed the Protecting Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023 to ensure women’s sports are protected under Title IX.

The bill, authored by Rep. Greg Steube (R-FL) and introduced by Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) today, recognizes the discrimination taking place against female athletes in sports when male athletes identifying as women are allowed to participate in their competitions.

“Female athletes are losing their rightful places to advance and win in their own sports when they are forced to compete against biological males,” said Penny Nance, CEO and President of CWALAC. “Women and girls deserve to have Title IX, the 50-year-old civil rights law that respects female athletes and guarantees equal opportunities and benefits for all athletes, be reinforced by this important legislation.”

The Protecting Women and Girls in Sports Act will clarify the responsibility of schools receiving federal funds to prohibit discrimination against female athletes based on biological sex. Title IX’s prohibition of sex discrimination is based on sex – male and female. It does not define sex based on “gender identity.” It does not sanction males, with distinct physiological advantages regardless of treatment, to compete in female sports. 

“No male, however he identifies, will ever shed his XY chromosomes, menstruate, or give birth,” says Nance. “Male bodies have larger hearts and lungs and higher hemoglobin levels that enable the body to oxygenate muscles faster. Science tells us they have bigger bones and muscle capacity, larger feet and hands. To deny these facts is to deny science.”

Policies allowing for inclusion in sex-specific sports on the basis of “gender identity” have no substantiation in biological fact or valid medical research to defend males competing in female athletics.

“Female athletes are under attack by an insidious form of sex discrimination driven by identity politics and condoned by schools and sports officials who are denying women and girls equal rights to their own sports. Sadly they are unwilling to stand up to protect fairness and inclusion for female athletes,” said Doreen Denny, CWA Senior Advisor. “Rep. Steube and his colleagues are working to make sure that does not continue to happen.”

CWA has filed three discrimination complaints against colleges, including 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.v