Will Feminism be a Casualty of the [American] Culture Wars?

On March 31, 2021, hundreds of prominent Feminists—among them Gloria Steinem—signed GLAAD’s open letter (see excerpt below) standing in solidarity with transgender women and girls in honor of Women’s History Month and Transgender Day of Visibility.

“We acknowledge with clarity and strength that transgender women are women and that transgender girls are girls. And we believe that honoring the diversity of women’s experiences is a strength, not a detriment to the feminist cause. All of us deserve the same access, freedoms, and opportunities. We deserve equal access to education, employment, healthcare, housing, recreation, and public accommodations. And we must respect each person’s right to bodily autonomy and self-determination.”

- 400 + Prominent Feminist Signatories
GLAAD March 31, 2021

On April 6, 2023 — two years later — after speaking on the campus of San Francisco State University, swimmer Riley Gaines was attacked and held captive by a mob organized, according to the New York Post, by SFSU’s Queer and Trans Resource Center.

Why was Ms. Gaines exercising her right to free speech at SFSU?

She is the 12-time-All-American champion swimmer who [remarkably] has become a controversial figure because she believes that only women should compete in women’s sports and share women’s safe spaces such as locker rooms.

Ms. Gaines has been directly impacted by the insertion of transgender athletes into her sport. Notably, she competed against Lia Thomas in the 200-yard freestyle at the NCAA women’s swimming championships in March of 2022. Lia Thomas is a transgender woman who had an unimpressive record while on the U Penn men’s swim team for the first three years of his college career. Then Thomas took a year off to transition during which time he underwent female hormonal treatment and did not train. She and Ms. Gaines tied for 5th place at the event.

Lia Thomas (left), Riley Gaines (right) pictured at the March 2022 NCAA Women’s Swimming Championships

A tie in swimming is somewhat rare; there were not two 5th place trophies for the athletes. Ms. Gaines posed for photos holding the 6th place trophy as requested by competition organizers. Thomas went on to dominate the field of women competing and was the first trans athlete to be named Women’s Division 1 NCAA Champion. Ms. Gaines left the competition without a trophy for her 5th place tie as apparently the organizers wanted Thomas to have it. Later, U Penn nominated Thomas for 2022 NCAA Woman Athlete of the Year.

Was there a Feminist outcry over any of this? No.

Thomas, a biological male was lauded as heroic while Gaines, a biological female, was vilified as transphobic. Gaines had the temerity to stand up for herself and speak out. She objected to sharing a locker room (safety) and the pool (fairness) with Thomas who, as a male, naturally has a different physique than the women competitors. In the modern era, aren’t women supposed to be supported when speaking their minds?

Fast forward and now Thomas and Gaines are squaring off outside the pool over the Biden Administration’s plans to reimagine Title IX (reimagining is quite in vogue with the “Adults in the Room” set). Title IX, a crown jewel of the modern Feminist movement is the federal law that was passed in 1972 to ensure that male and female students and employees in educational settings are treated equally and fairly. It protects against discrimination based on sex (including sexual harassment).

Do you have a daughter who participates in sports? Maybe she is a soccer player, a tennis player, a softball, basketball, or hockey player… Well, Title IX is largely responsible for that opportunity. Since 1972 millions of girls and young women have benefited from the life experience of playing organized sports due to Title IX. But Title IX is under threat in the wake of the virus-like transification of our youth. Biological males who identify as women are on the women’s team and in the women’s locker room (in all their naked, narcissistic glory). Some states, universities and clubs have pushed back, seeking to protect the level playing field that Title IX affords women. But, in the name of equality, President Biden announced that his administration wants to establish that outright bans on transgender athletes would violate Title IX.

But Title IX is under threat in the wake of the virus-like “transification” of our youth.

Lia Thomas supports the Biden administration’s move but thinks it does not go far enough; the proposal thus far applies only to university-aged athletes. Thomas believes that the kids must be “protected’ too. So, kids aged 12 and up who are undergoing “gender affirmation therapy” should also benefit (?) from the Biden plan. By the way, so far everyone seems ok with trans athletes participating on teams that are of their biological sex, but maybe time will tell on that front. How would a puberty-blocked 15-year-old trans girl wrestler perform on the boys’ team? Can she if that is where she is most comfortable? What if she does’t make the cut?

Ms. Gaines for her part will continue to fight the good fight. And she has numerous common-sense allies—encouragingly of all political stripes—working with her to protect women’s sports and women’s safety. To keep up to date on Riley Gaines’ efforts to protect women’s sports, check out this and other articles in The Lion.

Perhaps, inspired by Riley Gaines, the Feminists will remember themselves and step up to save women’s sports.

This post reprinted with permission from The Reluctant Californian’s Substack.