Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Ms. TENNEY. Mr. Chair, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

Mr. Chair, I was a female athlete many years ago and didn't have access to Title IX like women do today. I was a competitive basketball player, equestrian, and, yes, the 1975 teenage curling champion from Utica, New York. Some of these sports are sports where women and men can compete equally, and some are not.

I recently attended an event with Riley Gaines, the brave young woman who is standing up for women against the NCAA's unfairness in the women's swimming championship.

Riley Gaines tied for first with a biological male and was denied the ability to get her trophy. In fact, they sent it to her in the mail. She couldn't stand on the podium because she was told by an NCAA official that they needed a photo op to put the biological male in that place, a person who had competed as a male for 3 years unsuccessfully before coming in and reaching the top of the women's championships.

Unfortunately, Riley did not get to have that title. She did not get to sit on the podium.

Today, House Republicans are standing up for Riley and women like her.

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Ms. TENNEY. Mr. Chair, this type of unfair competition weakens Title IX protections. I hope that we will all join in and protect women's sports, especially when we have worked so hard as women to gain these rights for women, our grandchildren, and our children of tomorrow.

I thank the sponsor, Mr. Steube, and I thank Dr. Foxx for putting this bill on the floor and for her advocacy.

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