Congress deals a Loss for Women & Girls Sport
The US House of Representatives showed their true priority today by failing to actually support girls & women in sport, and attacking vulnerable children.
In an unprecedented move, House Republicans voted to limit access to sport for students across the USA. At a time where we should be focused on increasing athletic opportunities for women, girls and all athletes; House Republicans sponsored a shortsighted and poorly written piece of legislation. This legislation, written to attack some of the most vulnerable children in our society, has nothing to do with protecting women’s sports and everything to do with destructive identity politics and attacking the LGBTQ+ community. House Republicans decided to REDUCE the opportunity Title IX provides instead of addressing the actual issues impacting women’s sports in the USA - where there are more than 1.3 million fewer sporting opportunities for girls at the high school level compared to boys. A staggering 85% of colleges are not compliant with Title IX equality protections, meaning hundreds of thousands of female athletes do not enjoy the opportunity to compete for their university. By focusing on the lack of equity and parody of field access, locker room access, quality coaching and refereeing, and financial support, we could actually improve sport for women & girls. Instead, what we have is the prioritization of discrimination.
This bill is not progress, it is not the solution to very real challenges facing women’s sports. It is targeted discrimination.
Since the inception of sport, we have trusted sport administrators and league organizers to make the best decisions for their respective sports. We need to get back to taking sport administration out of the hands of big government identity politics and put it back in the hands of knowledgeable and passionate individuals who actually understand sports.
You Can Play strongly encourages the US Senate to actually support women & girls in sport, and vote NO on HB-28.