Texas Gov. signs bill to protect women's sports, accompanied by Riley Gaines and Paula Scanlan
‘Today feels like that one meet, that one race that you train all year for,’ Gaines said.
‘These are the women who committed their lives—altered their lives—so that they can compete, and yet you heard Riley talking about how she was marginalized,’ Abbott said.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had a ceremonial signing for the “Save Women’s Sports Act,” accompanied by former collegiate swimmers and women’s sports advocates Riley Gaines and Paula Scanlan, at Texas Women’s University in Denton Monday.
Abbott signed Senate Bill 15 in June after the Texas legislature passed it earlier this year. It prevents collegiate athletes from participating in competitions that are “designated for the biological sex opposite to the student’s biological sex” as denoted on an official birth certificate.
“These are the women who committed their lives—altered their lives—so that they can compete, and yet you heard Riley talking about how she was marginalized,” Abbott said at the ceremony.
Women have thrived under college sports.
They’ve mastered discipline, spurred drive, & cast visions to achieve greatness.
We won’t allow that to be jeopardized in Texas. pic.twitter.com/P8GcB95c4s— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) August 7, 2023
“She was the winner, and she was denied that victory,” Abbott said. Abbott was referring to when Gaines and Lia Thomas, formerly William Thomas, tied for fifth place in the 200-meter freestyle at the 2022 NCAA championships. The NCAA gave the trophy to Thomas, a male, instead of Gaines.
“Today feels like that one meet, that one race that you train all year for,” Gaines, a former University of Kentucky competitive swimmer, said.
Save Women’s Sports Act is now law in Texas🤝🏼
Thanks to the leadership of @GovAbbott @mayes_middleton @ValoreeforTexas for getting this through. On to the next state!
Which state should we push for next? pic.twitter.com/FFfjLPdfDj— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) August 7, 2023
”It’s pretty amazing that this law is even necessary,” she added. “If you have eyes and a brain and any amount of common sense you can easily comprehend the fact that men on average, and this is a fact, are taller, stronger, are powerful, can jump higher than women. It’s biological reality, but unfortunately, we live in such a time where it is somehow controversial to say men and women are different.”
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Paula Scanlan described her experience being Thomas’ teammate at the University of Pennsylvania. Thomas was on the men’s team for three years before transferring to the women’s team. Thomas, who had fully intact male genitalia, dressed in the women’s locker room 18 times per week, Scanlan said.
”When my teammates and I tried to voice our concerns to the athletic department, we were told that Lia’s swimming was nonnegotiable, and we were offered psychological services to reeducate us into accepting the idea of Thomas competing and undressing beside us,” Scanlan said. “We the women were the problem, not the victims.
”To sum up the university’s response, we the women were the problem, not the victims,” Scanlan added. “We were expected to confirm, and our feelings didn’t matter. The university was gaslighting and fearmongering us women to validate the feelings of a male.”
Abbott signed similar legislation in 2021 to protect girls’ sports at the K-12 level in Texas public schools.
