The PA Family team led a press conference on Tuesday, June 7th on the critical effort to save women’s sports in Pennsylvania.
National groups, leaders and lawmakers from Pennsylvania and beyond were present to testify to the importance of preserving fairness in women’s sports.
PA Family staff members Alexis Sneller and Emily Kreps led the event, each testifying to what will become of women’s sports should biological men continue to be permitted to participate on women’s-only teams.
Kreps, a former collegiate swimmer, is familiar with the emotion, hard work, and determination it takes to compete at the collegiate level. If men – who are biologically and physiologically different from women in critical ways which lends significant advantages in competitive sports – are able to compete in women’s leagues and take away opportunities, scholarships, and victories from female athletes, then the efforts to achieve Title IX will be for naught.
As she put it at the conclusion of the press conference, “Women should not be left to race for second.”
Amy Williams shared her daughter’s high school athletic experience, as she was unexpectedly faced with a boy joining her girl’s track and field team: “The girls’ struggle with [a biological male] on their team was not out of hate, but care for him. These lies are devastatingly harmful to the transgender children themselves. Who I ask is really hurting these children? By putting this bill forward, our state legislators are telling our boys to take responsibility for the bodies they have. Our schools need your help, our children need your help.”
“Protecting fairness in women’s sports is a bipartisan undertaking,” stated Kara Dansky of Women’s Declaration International. “Women are not a hormone level.”
Additional speakers at this press conference included Dilonna Coran of Concerned Women for America, Morgan Schlesselman of Young Women for America, Jennifer Thomas of Save Women’s Sports (founded by Beth Steltzer) and members of the PA General Assembly, including Rep. Barb Gleim, Rep. Martina White, Rep. Stephanie Borowicz, Sen. Judy Ward, and Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill.
Women from Pennsylvania and around the nation recognize the importance of passing Fairness in Women’s Sports legislation in every single state in America, but especially Pennsylvania, where we have seen countless opportunities and victories snatched from female athletes who have worked almost their entire lives to compete at this level.
Following this press conference, the PA Senate voted with bipartisan support to pass the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, SB 1191. The bill will now go to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives for consideration, where they recently passed the House version of the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, HB 972.
Earlier this week, Louisiana, even with a Democrat governor, joined the growing list of states that have successfully passed legislation to save women’s sports. Over a third of all states in the country have passed this legislation.
We cannot delay any longer. Pennsylvania needs the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act.
Please take a moment to remind your PA State Senator and State Representative that you support the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act – to email, click here or visit FairPlayPA.com.
To watch the full press conference, click here.
