Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Ms. MACE. Mr. Chairman, this amendment would mandate the Comptroller General carry out a study to determine the adverse effects of allowing biological men to compete in women's sports. It looks at the adverse psychological, developmental participatory, and sociological results to girls of allowing males to compete, be members of a sports team, or participants in athletic programs that are designed specifically for girls, including hostile environment creation, sexual assault, and sexual harassment.

We are going to call this today the Riley Gaines report. Riley Gaines lifetime of hard work was undermined by a biological male who was wrongly allowed to compete against women in NCAA-sanctioned competition.

Furthermore, she had to deal with the psychological trauma of being forced to share a locker room and change in front of a biological man. Subjecting more women to this is cruel.

All of the glass ceilings that have been shattered by women in sports have been for naught if we allow this to continue, so I am going to stand with women and fight for their fair right to competition.

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Ms. MACE. Mr. Chairman, for years, the left has said to follow the science. Well, today, Republicans are following the science. We are not confused about the differences between biological men and biological women.

As a woman who is pro-LGBTQ, I don't care how you dress. I don't care what pronoun you take. I don't care if you change your gender. But we ought to protect biological women and girls in their athletics and their achievements.

As someone who has broken glass ceilings, I am the first woman to graduate from The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina. We don't want biological men taking away the achievements of women who fought so hard for where they are today.

It was 100 years after women's suffrage that South Carolina elected the first ever Republican woman to Congress. That is what I did in 2020.

We don't want to take these achievements away from women at all. We are not confused. Having biological men in locker rooms, as a mom of a girl, and hearing Riley Gaines' story, and as someone who was molested at 14, raped at 16, the risks to our girls and to women by biological men in some of these cases and the stories that we have heard, we ought to do our damnedest to protect women and girls in sports.

This is not insidious. What is insidious is allowing men in girls' locker rooms as they are changing, as they are showering. That is perverted; it is insidious; it is disgusting.

We want to make sure that we are doing everything we can to protect women and girls. This report will study that and bring the results to Congress.

I thank Riley Gaines for sharing her story, putting it out there, and talking about the realities of what is going on in this country.

I can tell you the other side is very much confused. They are so confused now that Republicans have become the feminists of today.

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Ms. MACE. I have. I actually know transgender constituents. I know transgender children. I have friends in my district that have transgender kids. I am very well aware.

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Ms. MACE. Yes, 100 percent.
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Ms. MACE. Mr. Chairman, when we use the term ``biological men,'' we are actually following the science because for years the left has said follow the science. When you are born a biological male, you are born with physical advantages over women.

We do want to study the psychological effect on women in sports, in their locker rooms. We want to study what is going on and how it negatively impacts women.

Women should not be ignored in this situation, whether they are in the classroom, or on a sports team, or in the private sector.

As I mentioned before, I know and have met with plenty of transgender individuals. This is not against the LGBTQ community. We are pro-women today, and that is what this amendment is about, protecting women and girls against biological men who want to compete against them.

I don't think any of us have any discontent if transgender girls wanted to have their own sports teams and compete at that level because the physical differences between biological men and biological women are very different. We want to make sure that we are going to protect them, and that we don't have any other women going through what Riley Gaines went through. It was wrong then; it is wrong now.

I am proud of this amendment and the work that we are doing to protect women and girls. As I said before, I have broken many glass ceilings, and I don't want to see those achievements taken away from biological women who have worked so hard to get to where they are today.

We want to set a good example that they can achieve anything they want in America, anything they want in the United States of America. If they have goals, they work hard to achieve them. They can do anything they want, and no man will get in their way.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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Ms. MACE. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

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