As young women across the country lose their athletic scholarships and opportunities to men pretending to be women, Republican State Rep. Bryan Slaton is again rebuking top state officials for refusing to act.
The nationwide issue was most recently evidenced last week at the NCAA swimming competitions, when University of Pennsylvania student Lia Thomas—a biological man—was permitted to swim in the women’s events and won the 500-yard freestyle national championship.
The NCAA (which governs most college athletics) allows biological men to intrude on college women’s sports per a new policy.
Thomas beat would-be first place finisher Emma Weyant, a freshman at the University of Virginia and 2020 Olympic medalist.
“Males competing against women in sports is wrong,” wrote Rep. Slaton on social media, explaining how the Republican-controlled Texas Legislature turned down proposed legislation last year that would protect college women athletes.
“During the third special [legislative] session we did pass a bill to protect girls’ sports by keeping boys from competing in high school sports. That was not enough. [In the] same session, I filed a bill to keep males out of girls’ college sports. Unfortunately, Republican leadership refused to support it,” said Slaton.
Indeed, Gov. Greg Abbott at the time said he only wanted the proposed law that applied to high school girls, and Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan arranged just that.
Notably, the NCAA had threatened to move championship games away from Texas if state lawmakers chose to also enact the protections for college women.
Texas Scorecard previously detailed that story.
“As [Republicans], we must lead. We need to refrain from partial solutions to problems, then [using] those small victories to do a victory dance,” Rep. Slaton continued. “We must stop with the reactionary solutions to current problems and lead.”
Meanwhile, Florida’s Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis passed a state law to protect both high school and college women’s athletics. Just this week, DeSantis announced a proclamation declaring swimmer Weyant (a Florida native) the rightful winner.
“Women have fought for decades to have equal opportunities in athletics, and it is wrong to allow ideology to erode these opportunities as is happening in other states, and the preservation of women-specific athletic teams or sports is necessary to promote equality of athletic opportunities,” the proclamation reads. “Florida rejects the NCAA’s efforts to destroy women’s athletics, disapproves of the NCAA elevating ideology over biology, and takes offense at the NCAA trying to make others complicit in a lie.”
“[Weyant] earned that and we need to stop allowing organizations like the NCAA to perpetuate frauds on the public,” DeSantis said.
“Women being told to accept second place is exactly what we’ve been fighting against for basically all of history,” one citizen added on social media.
Citizens and pro-family organizations are again admonishing Gov. Abbott to reconvene the Texas Legislature and enact the protections for women in Texas. Concerned citizens may contact the governor and their representatives.
