Independent Women's Forum (IWF) members, a women's advocacy group, are on a 13-day bus tour.
The tour is called the "Our Bodies Our Sports - Take Back Title IX" tour. It is bringing attention to the Biden administration's rewriting of Title IX. Riley Gaines, NCAA swimmer Paula Scanan, and legendary tennis star Martina Navratilova are joining the women. Riley Gaines, a former NCAA champion swimmer and current podcast host, was at the forefront of speaking out against transgender athletes in women's sports. She is a trailblazer.
The supporters of trans athletes are an active, intense population. Progressives are more concerned with appeasing a tiny minority of trans activists than they are with preserving women's sports. IWF members are frequently criticized as being anti-trans.
It is not anti-trans to want women to be protected under Title IX. It is wrong for men to compete with women because it is not fair competition. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that men are physically stronger than women. They are faster, too. That is science. Whatever happened to the progressive left insisting that we all 'follow the science' when it came to other issues? Shouldn't athletic competition also rely on science when the rules are made?
The tour bus was vandalized with vulgar language and messages written with Sharpie markers, calling the group anti-trans on Thursday in North Carolina.
The group held a rally in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on Thursday, but when they were set to leave, they found their bus "egged & defaced with profanity and anti-woman messages" by "overnight vandals."
Messages from the vandals included "Hate Group," "Trans women are women," "f--- transphobia," and "Bigots on board." A penis was also drawn on the bus.
The Carrboro Police Department said to Fox News Digital that they were unsure of the cost of damage.
🚨 ATTACK ON FEMALE ATHLETES ON TOUR 🚨 BUS TOUR THREATENED:
— Independent Women's Forum (@IWF) June 21, 2024
Overnight vandals violated nearly every inch of the Our Bodies, Our Sports #TakeBackTitleIX bus in Chapel Hill, NC. Egged & defaced with profanity & anti-woman messages. Radical gender ideologues on a mission to erase… pic.twitter.com/S83OVpHHaZ
Bad enough they're throwing women under the bus, now they're throwing eggs at it. What's next⁉️
— Independent Women's Forum (@IWF) June 21, 2024
FULL LENGTH VIDEO OF VANDALIZED OUR BODIES, OUR SPORTS #TAKEBACKTITLEIX SUMMER 2024 TOUR BUS: pic.twitter.com/wsVmDiBPRC
The bus tour manager released a statement.
"It’s disgusting but not surprising to see such a blatant anti-woman attack on a tour bus – our home on the road – that represents a national movement fighting to preserve equal opportunity, fairness, and safety for women in athletics," IWF coalition and bus tour manager Brianna Howard said in a statement. "The Title IX rewrite from the Biden administration is in itself just that – an attack on women. We are disheartened but will continue to stand strong and share this important message across the country: women will not be replaced or sidelined. The Our Bodies, Our Sports Coalition has been working to save women’s sports since 2021, and we aren’t slowing down anytime soon. This cowardice attack will only make us stronger and louder as we continue to roll into Washington, D.C., to amplify our message to the administration and Congress!"
Riley Gaines spoke out, too.
Added Gaines: "It's amazing that females wanting female-only sports warrants such a reaction. They’ve resorted to name-calling, defaming, and intentional misrepresentation when they can't dissuade from our position. And now they’ve added violence and vandalism to their tactics. Common sense, logic, reason, lived experience, and science are on our side. Let's be clear. The trans-rights activists don't want inclusion; they want the exclusion of women."
As Martina pointed out, this isn't a left versus right issue for everyone. She calls herself a leftist yet she has been in support of women in sports from the beginning of the trans movement. When another woman on the tour called herself a leftist, Martina said she was, too.
So am I and so are hundreds of thousands of women who support us. I should say millions, actually. I am a leftist. I would call the people who did this cowards and anarchists who don’t give a shit about women.
— Martina Navratilova (@Martina) June 21, 2024
Martina blasted a reporter who responded to her by calling her anti-trans.
Martina Navratilova turning this anti-trans crusade into her life's obsession in recent years remains dispiriting! And she turns it into way more transphobic vitriol than just discussing sports fairness, as I've covered before, just being nasty and cruel and dehumanizing. Boo. https://t.co/LI3npnApwp pic.twitter.com/5xRw5jITqR
— Ben Rothenberg (@BenRothenberg) June 21, 2024
Yet another man telling women what they should care about. And who are you exactly ? Oh yeah, the reporter who tells tennis players its off the record and then prints what they said anyway. Good to know you care about women’s sports and women’s sex based spaces. I care.
— Martina Navratilova (@Martina) June 22, 2024
Ouch. And yea!
This is where we are. Women athletes are being injured by men during competitions. The battle to get Title IX passed took years. It's important that women have the opportunity to compete in sports. They receive scholarships for education and they can go on to professional career opportunities. If men continue to compete in women's sports, women's sports will cease to exist. Women have to stand up and say no. The same is true of their families and coaches. It has to stop. Where are all the feminists?
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