NCAA to consider banning transgender athletes from women's sports
Former NCAA athletes Paula Scanlan and Adriana McLamb share their message ahead of the meeting, urging the organization to adopt the transgender ban.
I started participating in sports at an early age and have been active my whole life. I’ve tried most sports available in my area, like soccer, swimming, cheer, dance, gymnastics, running and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. It’s what I love. But something I love has turned into a source of pain.
When I was in 7th grade, I joined my middle school track team to compete in throwing events, just like my parents did. But that same year, a 6th-grade boy, known in court documents as BPJ, joined the girls’ team. BPJ identifies as a girl. I was forced to unfairly compete against and use the same locker room as BPJ.
In my 8th-grade year, BPJ started making extremely inappropriate comments to me and other girls that made me very uncomfortable. In any other situation, I would report the comments to my school immediately. But since BPJ identifies as transgender, I was worried I would be labeled as transphobic, and it would make things awkward on my team. So, I didn’t say anything and tried to stay as far away from BPJ as possible.
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It didn’t work. I eventually told my parents about the sexual harassment, and we reported it to my school administrators. But the school did nothing to change things or help me.
Adaleia Cross (middle) at the Harrison County Middle School Championships held at Liberty High School’s Mazzei Reaser Athletic Complex in Clarksburg, W.V., on April 12, 2023. (Photo courtesy of Alliance Defending Freedom)
To make matters even worse, I started losing to BPJ, repeatedly. Everyone knows boys are naturally bigger, stronger and more muscular than girls. It’s scientifically clear. That’s why there are girls-only categories in sports.
On the track team, I competed in shotput, discus, pole vault, the 100m dash, and the 4x100. I also filled in wherever they needed me. I loved it.
But things kept getting worse.In April 2023, because BPJ was competing on the girls’ team, I was left out of one of the competitions for the throwing events, which I had been competing in for two seasons. For most meets, the athletes with the three best personal records compete in each championship event. BPJ had already replaced me in the shotput top three, but I was still in the top three for discus—until the Mid-Mountain 10 meet towards the end of the season.
The whole season, BPJ had been physically changing — getting taller, shoulders broadening, voice getting deeper, as a male hitting puberty does. My coach pulled me aside before the Mid-Mountain 10 meet and informed me I had been knocked out of throwing in the competition. BPJ, a male almost two years younger than me, had officially replaced me, a female on the girls’ throwing team, in the meet.
On top of all of that, BPJ rubbed it in my face, made me feel inferior, and trash-talked me for not throwing as far. In short, BPJ belittled me.
Now the federal government is trying to re-write Title IX — the law that gave women equal opportunity in education and athletics — to erase protections for women and girls. This change would require schools to allow males who identify as females to share our locker rooms, bathrooms, showers, and, inevitably, our sports teams. So, what happened to me isn’t going to be an isolated event. It could happen to girls across the country.
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The government is trying to say its new change doesn’t affect sports. But if you redefine sex in Title IX to include gender identity and redefine what it means to be a woman, schools will have to allow male students who identify as female to join female teams.
Besides, West Virginia had a state law protecting women’s sports and protecting me, but when BPJ challenged that law in court, the federal government sided with BPJ. The Department of Justice said that Title IX requires schools to let BPJ compete on women’s sports teams.
I eventually told my parents about the sexual harassment, and we reported it to my school administrators. But the school did nothing to change things or help me.
The administration is just putting up a smokescreen, hoping no one notices that this new rule is an attack on women’s sports.
None of this is fair or safe. I don’t want what happened to me to happen to other girls. So, I decided I had to speak up. My family and I took legal action Friday to challenge the government’s unlawful change related to Title IX. With the help of Alliance Defending Freedom, we hope to stop the federal government from pushing the erasure and unsafe treatment of girls and from taking away our right to privacy and fair play.
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It’s 2024, and I thought things were equal for women — that if I tried my best, I had a fair chance. But now, in the name of progress and diversity, the Biden administration is trying to take away my right to safety and my right to compete in sports. That’s not progress.
I’m speaking out because I fear for my little sister and for girls across the country. No girl should have to endure sexual harassment or feel uncomfortable and anxious at school. No girl should have to compete in an unsafe and unfair system in school. I just hope my voice helps others see the truth, because I don’t want this to happen to anyone else.
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