Friend,

I hate to give you this news late on a Friday night before you get your weekend started, but I’m mad. Because here we are again. Another mediocre male athlete identifying as a woman, is vying to compete on the women’s team and turn into a women’s record smasher without even trying. 

Another Lia Thomas has infiltrated our spaces. What happened to me and countless other female athletes is happening again at Roanoke College because we have weak leaders who are fine with women becoming collateral damage if it means being seen as kind and inclusive and compassionate. 

Yesterday, I was in Roanoke, VA advocating for the young women affected by the decision of Roanoke College to permit a biological male on the women’s swim team.
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What the NCAA, politicians and unelected ideologies, and the authority figures at Roanoke College are doing is actively working to undermine Title IX by allowing females to be displaced by males who merely claim the identity of a woman. In doing so, they are sending a clear message to all girls and women. A message that says we don’t matter. A message that says our ability to give consent in our single-sex spaces is irrelevant because being “kind and inclusive” is much more important. A message that we are not worthy of recognition. A message that we simply exist to validate the feelings and the identity of males. A message that if we don’t do so with a smile on our face, then we’re hateful bigots. 

Allowing males to compete on women’s teams is and always will be unfair

Swimming at the collegiate level takes tenacity, dedication, and hard work. By allowing this biological male to compete, Roanoke College is explicitly choosing to take away opportunities from women who, like me, have worked for their entire lives. There is no other way to describe it: this is discrimination

The women swimmers from Roanoke have been silenced. Their college has gaslighted and emotionally blackmailed them into making them feel like the oppressors. They want the girls to feel guilty for demanding fairness. 
 
We cannot allow these institutions to ignore women in the name of their woke agendas. 

Despite being threatened by the college, several brave young women from the Roanoke College swim team have chosen to stand up for women’s sports and protest Roanoke College’s discriminatory policies towards women. 

Strength comes in numbers, and especially in this case. I applaud these girls for their unity and courage in standing up for not just their women’s team at Roanoke College but female athletes across the nation. Our leaders could learn a thing or two from them. 

Support the girls swim team in Roanoke by joining them in telling the NCAA to stop discriminating against women and establish rules to keep women’s sports female. 
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Yours in the fight,


Riley Gaines
Ambassador
Independent Women’s Forum
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