The Patriot Post® · Here Comes the Women's Sports Cavalry

Riley Gaines, former swimmer for the University of Kentucky, has a new ally in her mission to save women’s sports. Paula Scanlan was a teammate of William “Lia” Thomas at the University of Pennsylvania. Thomas, as you may recall, is the infamous male who declared he was a female and got to swim competitively against college women. He went from a middling swimmer to All-American with his declaration of “womanhood.”

Scanlan had previously spoken out about Thomas anonymously on Matt Walsh’s documentary “What Is a Woman?” in which she attested to the strong stance that her coaches had taken. The coaches and athletic department made it very clear that the UPenn girls should toe the line and not make any trouble about Thomas’s admittance on the team. These young women were also intimidated and threatened. If they spoke out, they would be labeled bigots, their future careers would be at stake, and other consequences would ensue.

Even at the time, Scanlan was deeply troubled by the bullying tactics of her school against her and her teammates. In her most recent interview with Walsh, Scanlan recounted: “After that meeting, they really scared us. … I went home that night and I called my brother and said, ‘Can I even talk about this with you? Is there something wrong with me for thinking that this is wrong?’ It worked. The university wanted us to be quiet, and they did it in a very effective way. … And after that point, no one would talk about it anymore. They effectively silenced us even within talking to each other.”

A teammate of Lia Thomas appeared in What Is A Woman anonymously. A few days ago she came to us and said she is ready to come out publicly and tell her story. I had a longer conversation with Paula where she revealed a number of details that weren’t covered in the film. Watch: pic.twitter.com/wlknGmslJC

— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) June 5, 2023

Scanlan is joining the fight now because she is realizing that the institutions she trusted to protect her and her teammates “won’t do the right thing.” It is women like Riley Gaines and Paula Scanlan who are going to be the ones to change the trajectory of this movement. This is a realization that all women must come to if there is to be any progress in this fight to protect women’s sports.

Universities won’t do the right thing because many of them are publicly funded. What is the Biden administration’s favorite culture war issue? “Transgender rights.” Most universities wouldn’t dare go against the Democrat Party line. They have the political and financial stakes to ensure the ideology gets implemented. Universities and other publicly funded schools are not going to do the right thing even if they recognize it as the right thing (which is questionable). These poor female athletes are swimming in shark-infested waters.

But it’s not as bleak as it seems. On the Title IX front, where Biden has attempted to add gender identity as a protected class, there has been progress to counter this effort. However, it all means nothing if women cannot unite.

Traitors like former women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe and WNBA legends Sue Bird and Brittany Griner — all of whom have endorsed having “trans women” (men) compete against women — have no stake in the future of women’s sports. They have no children who are affected by their stance, and they themselves are headed out of the spotlight.

But other women who are competing or have athletic daughters have no excuse for supporting this agenda. And yet, it is because of women that this pitched battle for women’s rights is even an issue. Women overwhelmingly vote for Democrats who endorse this ideology. Women are also the primary enablers of the sort of behavior that trans-identifying people force on everyone else, such as preferred pronoun usage and the virtues of “acceptance” and “tolerance.”

Well, there is extensive harm associated with these shortsighted and shallow maxims, and both political pundit Megyn Kelly and Christian author Rosaria Butterfield have publicly changed their stance on coddling this gender delusion with preferred pronouns.

Indulging this group of confused and sometimes brainwashed people is not loving them; it’s lying to them. Kowtowing to their activist backers is fomenting the problem. Kelly admitted that Riley Gaines’s treatment at San Francisco University — where trans activists attacked Gaines and chased her into a janitor’s closet — was a turning point in her using preferred pronouns. “There is the harm,” she said as she watched women being abused for standing up for themselves.

Women have a beautiful God-given gift of compassion and empathy that is intrinsic to their nature. That same compassion and empathy have been used by an abusive elite to silence women and morally corrupt children in this pervasive push toward Gender Marxism.

Transgenderism ideology is rank abuse of the vulnerable. This cult targets women and children, though even some men are susceptible to the violent bullying of its acolytes.

Riley Gaines has become the public face of preserving women’s sports in the U.S. She has literally taken hits because of her position. Other voices across the pond have played an important role as well. Voices like J.K. Rowling, who has suffered the slings and arrows of transgenderism’s violent activists, and the women cyclists who have been brave enough to boycott races in protest. They have figured out a way to band together and stand united against this ideological power grab.

Here in the U.S., girls as young as high-school age are fighting for their right to have women-only sports, and they are catching hell for doing so. Judges aren’t letting them be anonymous in their complaints. If they stand up, they have to put their names and faces out in the public. It is essentially giving the activists another target. Miraculously, many are willing to do just that. They are facing the giants and taking on a great injustice.

It is infuriating when conservative men accuse women of not standing up for themselves. That is simply not true at all. Women have been powerfully pushing back, and they continue to keep going. It was the enabling of weak and shortsighted women that let this ideology take hold, and it will be the strong and brave women who stop the bleeding.

However, there is another interesting reason why women and children are the primary targets of this ideological bullying. The ideologues who champion Gender Marxism are picking on a target they consider easy.

Both the enablers of this ideology and the gender dysphoric men cruel enough to usurp women’s spaces are masters at manipulating a woman’s compassion and empathy to get what they want. They are ultimately abusive narcissists who have succeeded in making women feel not only alone and crazy but like their perfectly legitimate concerns were wrong. That’s why they have run roughshod over women’s sports, women’s locker rooms, women’s rights, and women’s safety.

Fortunately, this group of narcissistic abusers are a small minority. That is what is being shown again and again.

The Biden administration has been pushing the Gender Marxism agenda hard, but even among Democrat constituents, it’s a 60-20-20 issue. The majority of Americans are against the indoctrination and infiltration of this ideology.

It is often the loudest minority that upends society and throws it into chaos. By exposing their numbers and banding together in opposition to this madness, we women can stop it.

We can save women’s sports for our daughters, our granddaughters, and many more women to come. Thank you, Riley Gaines, Paula Scanlan, and all the other women who are risking life and limb for our girls. We’ve got your back.