The Women’s Sports Policy Working Group and Champion Women offer a common-sense rationale to explain why locker rooms designed for women need to remain female-only. Girls’ and women’s locker rooms have been designed exclusively for people who have female[i] bodies, and for good reasons. Those reasons include biological differences between women and men; women’s right to privacy; and protection from male violence against women in such forms as sexual harassment, assault, and rape. These reasons remain valid. Therefore, access to female athletes’ locker rooms should be restricted to female athle ..read more

The Women’s Sports Policy Working Group (WSPWG) and Champion Women strongly oppose both the Biden administration’s and the twenty State Attorneys General’s positions regarding any state or federal laws, proposed legislation, or Department of Education regulations that would unconditionally include or exclude transgender students from participating in sports. Instead, we advocate for restricting female sports competition to female athletes while creating equitable and inclusive accommodations for athletes who were born male and identify as women. A Note About Terminology In this document, the p ..read more

Megyn Kelly is joined by Nancy Hogshead-Makar, Olympic gold medalist in swimming, and Cynthia Millen, former USA Swimming official, to discuss the latest on transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, gender discrimination in sports, the lack of fairness to women.  The post Video Interview: “Gender Discrimination Amid Trans Inclusion in Sports” (January 3, 2022) The Megyn Kelly Show. appeared first on Women's Sports Policy Working Group ..read more

The Swimming World editorial staff reports on the reaction of Olympic swimmer Erika Brown to the Lia Thomas controversy.  Brown expresses hope that her willingness to speak out will lead to others speaking out as well.  The post “Olympian Erika Brown: ‘We Cannot Allow Transgender Females to Compete Against Biological Women’” (December 29, 2021) Swimming World. appeared first on Women's Sports Policy Working Group ..read more

The Women’s Sports Policy Working Group (WSPWG) endorses the American Swimming Coaches Association’s (AWCA) position, urging the NCAA to update its Transgender Eligibility Guidelines. The Guidelines should ensure that eligibility rules are evidence-based and do not undermine the fairness, equality, and safety goals that justify separate sex competition. In contrast with the NCAA’s prior rulemaking process that was closed to stakeholders, going forward the process must involve female athletes, their coaches, and scientific experts in sex differences in human performance alongside transgender at ..read more

Olympic champion and civil rights lawyer Nancy Hogshead-Makar pens and op-ed detailing why transgender women should be allowed to compete in women’s athletics as long as they can show that they’ve mitigated the athletic advantages that come with male puberty.  The post “It was not fair when I raced against doped-up East Germans and it is not fair for women to compete against transgender swimmer Lia Thomas” (December 24, 2021) Daily Mail. appeared first on Women's Sports Policy Working Group ..read more

Donna Lopiano maintains that the NCAA transgender policy governing eligibility to compete in college women’s sports must be changed to ensure fair competition for females and adhere to social justice principles of inclusion for all girls and women. The post “Why the NCAA’s Transgender Eligibility Policy is Outdated – And How It Can Be Fixed” (January 5, 2022) Forbes.com. appeared first on Women's Sports Policy Working Group ..read more

Doriane Coleman pens an op-ed that addresses the need to acknowledge hard truths present in the case of sex and sports and what it means when science says that “sex” is actually what matters and that sex is undeniably binary.  The post “On the Biology of Sex, Sex Differentiation, and Performance Gap” (December 16, 2021) Reason.com. appeared first on Women's Sports Policy Working Group ..read more

Dan D’Addona, Swimming World managing editor, interviews deVarona on the work that still needs to be done by FINA and USA Swimming to find fair and inclusive ways to accommodate transgender athletes and avoid situations like the Lia Thomas controversy.  Read the entire article here. The post “Donna deVarona:  Transgender Swimming Dialogue Must Continue – ‘It’s Complicated and People Don’t Like Complicated’” (January 4, 2022) Swimming World. appeared first on Women's Sports Policy Working Group ..read more

The Swimming World editorial staff reviews WSPWG efforts to affirm the legal permissibility of separate girls’ and women’s competitive sports teams while including all trans girls/women under the girls’ and women’s sports umbrella.  The post “Lia Thomas Debate: Women’s Sports Policy Working Group Focused on Protection of Female Sports ” (December 13, 2021) Swimming World. appeared first on Women's Sports Policy Working Group ..read more