(PresidentialHill.com)- Current and former female college athletes are threatening legal action if the NCAA does not eliminate its policies that permit male students who “identify” as women to compete in women’s college sports, the Washington Times reported.
During a press conference last Thursday outside of the NCAA annual convention in San Antonio, former University of Arizona swimming champion Marshi Smith read a letter to the organization urging the NCAA to take immediate steps to “establish rules to keep women’s collegiate sports female.”
Smith, the co-founder of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS), said her organization would continue to speak out and advocate “until we know women’s sports have rules in place that defend integrity and fairness for female athletes.”
The letter issues several demands to the NCAA, including repealing the policies that permit male athletes to take spaces on women’s teams and sporting events, establishing rules that will “keep women’s sports female,” and requiring schools to provide female-only locker rooms.
The letter warns that if the NCAA fails to protect female athletes from discrimination, “legal action” will be taken to “compel” the NCAA to do so.
The letter was written by attorneys from the Jackson Bone law firm on behalf of ICONS and eight other women’s organizations, the Women’s Liberation Front, Women’s Declaration International USA, Independent Women’s Forum, Alliance Defending Freedom, Concerned Women of America, Champion Women, International Consortium on Female Sport, and the Women’s Sports Policy Working Group.
The press conference/rally was headlined by former University of Kentucky swimming champion Riley Gaines and featured nearly two dozen female athletes, including 3-time gold medalist Nancy Hogshead-Makar, the CEO of Champion Women.
After the controversy involving biological male swimmer “Lia” Thomas, the NCAA revised its transgender policy last year, dropping its testosterone requirement for transgender “women” athletes and opting instead to defer to the national governing bodies for individual sports.
