By Suzanne Bowdey
The Washington Stand
People wondering how long women’s basketball can sustain this level of hype don’t have to wonder much longer. Not only did Caitlin Clark’s pro jersey sell out in a matter of 24 hours, but the WNBA draft where she was taken first overall quadrupled its viewers over 2023. In Washington, D.C., the Mystics, who are used to playing in small venues, are so overwhelmed with demand they’ve been forced to move the June game against Clark to the 18,000-seat Capital One Arena. The enthusiasm makes it all the more infuriating that — a mile down the road — the president is trying to dismantle the sport they’ve built.
At the same time women’s basketball took the country by storm, Joe Biden was putting the finishing touches on a radical rewrite of Title IX, the same policy that gave Caitlin Clark, Kamilla Cardoso, and others the chance to play on a big collegiate stage. Under this “revision” of a groundbreaking civil rights law, the White House has decided that biological men who identify as women deserve more protection than the girls the 52-year-old rules were created to defend.
In the 1,577-page document — which intends to do by federal fiat what Congress never authorized — women’s rights are completely obliterated in favor of trans-identifying biological men. This mammoth overreach by Biden’s team affects everything from school bathroom, locker room, and dorm room policies to the use of preferred pronouns, and makes “gender identity” (a term used 289 times in the rule) a protected class in education. In other words, the original purpose of the law, preventing sex discrimination against women, has been absolutely gutted in favor of biological males.
“Men are the new women,” insisted Concerned Women for America’s (CWA) Doreen Denny. Incredibly, she points out, “males like Lia Thomas declaring ‘womanhood’ have the upper hand in civil rights claims under this Biden rule. A male’s feminine feelings and desires are prioritized over any psychological turmoil foisted on female students and athletes suffering the injustice. The disadvantage and harm goes one way: female students are being assaulted in school restrooms; female athletes are forced to surrender their privacy in the locker rooms and have their opportunities and achievements stolen in their own sports.”
Riley Gaines, who knows what it’s like to be elbowed off the podium by men like Thomas, couldn’t believe the audacity of the president. “This is the most asinine — really, I would say the most anti-woman, anti-reality — pursuit we have seen from this administration thus far,” she told former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany. “It is something that not only abolishes women’s sports as we know it, [but] this would allow men [in] women’s locker rooms, bathrooms, changing spaces. This would potentially allow men to be housed in dorm rooms with women. And this would compel our speech. Students and faculty would be forced, required to use preferred pronouns.”
And if they don’t? You’ll be punished. Or “if you, a 17-year-old girl who’s randomly housed with a male in your dorm room” express discomfort under this new proposal, Gaines went on, “you would be guilty and charged with sexual harassment — not the man parading around your locker room. To President Biden, that’s considered brave, that’s considered inspiring and stunning and whatever other virtuous word he wants to use,” she fumed. “But you calling a spade a spade is grounds for sexual harassment.”
In an interesting twist, the president opted not to upend the sports portion of the policy over fears that it could impact the November elections. As even the White House knows, “unpopular” doesn’t begin to describe the public’s mood when it comes to the transgender takeover of girls’ pools, tracks, fields, and courts. By Gallup’s last count, almost 70% of Americans — including 55% of Democrats — don’t want their daughters competing on teams with biological boys.
But even without the sports component, Gaines said her “mind [is] blown” that Biden would pursue any of this in an election year. “[T]he way he did it was pretty strategic. … You mentioned that he has a separate rollout for sports. Basically what [he’s] doing was winking at normal sane people saying, ‘Hey, we’re with you,’ but also winking at the progressive Left saying, ‘Hey, we’re with you.’ In doing that, really standing on the fence, we know that this is a way to alienate both sides.” It’s an issue, she believes from talking to people around the country that “90 to 95% of common sense everyday Americans — parents, coaches, medical professionals, female athletes themselves — [reject]. This really isn’t a battle of red versus blue,” Gaines pointed out. “Really, what this is, is sane versus insane. Moral versus evil.”
And the women who stand to lose the most are making their voices heard. LSU-star-turned-Chicago-Sky rookie Angel Reese stunned the country with her tweet Monday after being drafted by the Chicago Sky. It said simply, “protect young women in sports!!!” That was at 10:20 a.m. By the afternoon, it had 1.4 million impressions.
Family Research Council’s Mary Szoch, who played Division I basketball at Notre Dame, took her hat off to the new WNBA draftee. “Angel Reese is a spectacular athlete,” Szoch told The Washington Stand. “In fact, in a game of one-on-one, she would beat most men. Still, Angel Reese recognizes that because of biological differences between men and women, allowing men to play women’s sports puts women in danger and crushes their dreams. While Biden’s new Title IX rule undoes all of the work Title IX was passed to do by allowing men to play women’s sports, Angel Reese is standing up for every girl who will come in second to a man, every girl who will sit on the bench, and every girl who will now watch from the stands.”
“Angel Reese has taught the Bidens a thing or two in the past,” she said, referring to Jill Biden’s bizarre invitation for Reese’s LSU team to come to the White House in 2023, despite losing in the finals (an offer the forward called “A JOKE”). “Hopefully the Biden administration will recognize she’s right yet again.”
Reese’s decision to jump into the debate was especially significant considering South Carolina Coach Dawn Staley’s betrayal of the girls she led to victory. On the eve of her championship win against Iowa, she astonished the press pool by declaring that “if you consider yourself a woman, and you want to play sports or vice versa, you should be able to play. That’s my opinion.”
This is a woman whose team is fueling one of the biggest sports storylines of the decade, and she chose that moment, this seismic shift in the popularity of female athletes, to throw her girls — and girls everywhere — under the bus.
Like so many people, former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom’s jaw dropped at the suggestion — since not only have girls been physically hurt playing biological men, but titles, opportunities, and records have been stripped by these physically stronger, genetically-overpowering imposters.
The Turkish-born Freedom, who’s spent the last several years calling out the NBA’s ties to human rights abuses in China, fired back, “Men don’t belong in women’s spaces, restrooms, locker rooms, or sports. Since I’m blackballed from the NBA,” he offered, “should I put on a wig, identify as a woman and start dominating the WNBA? Is that when the outrage will begin? Is that fair to all the women who spent their whole life chasing their goals? Where are all the Women Rights Activists and Feminists?!”
Most experts believe the explosion of women’s sports can go as far and wide as its rising stars take it. The biggest threat they face isn’t dwindling interest or limited coverage. It’s the guy in the White House who thinks men make better women — and isn’t afraid to abuse his power to reinforce it.
Originally published at The Washington Stand!
