Breaking! NCAA Sued By Riley Gaines, Other Female Athletes To Protect Women’s Sports
Austin, TX – March 14, 2024: Today, national acclaimed spokesperson and NCAA star swimmer Riley Gaines, along with 15 other top tier NCAA female athletes, filed a lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) for allowing men to compete in women’s sports and undress in women’s locker rooms. This lawsuit is the continuation of Save Women’s Sports efforts by the female athlete group, ICONS who first delivered a legal demand letter to the NCAA in San Antonio, Texas in January of 2023.
The focus of the lawsuit is the competition that occurred in 2022 where male swimmer Lia Thomas from the University of Pennsylvania (who is originally from Westlake High School in Texas) competed in the women’s NCAA Championship for swimming. Riley and the other female athletes discuss in the lawsuit how allowing Thomas, who had notable physical advantages, was unfair. The female athlete plaintiffs also detail the discomfort of when Thomas was allowed to undress in the women’s locker room at the competition.
You can read the details of the lawsuit here.
Mary Elizabeth Castle, Director of Government Relations for Texas Values released the following statement:
“The time of reckoning has come for the NCAA who continues to fail at protecting women athletes in the sports arena and the locker room by allowing men like Will “Lia” Thomas to steal trophies from women’s hands and rob them of dignity by undressing in the women’s showers. The NCAA may set their own policies but they cannot deny the biggest sports policy of all time: Title IX. Now, they must defend their discrimination against women in a city and state known for its civil rights battles. Thankfully, Texas has laws to protect female athletes at all levels.”
Texas Values has been working alongside ICONS and Riley Gaines in the efforts to pass laws in Texas to protect female athletes in K-12 and the collegiate level. Texas Values was present and spoke at the rally in San Antonio, Texas in 2023 when ICONS and Riley Gaines delivered the first legal demand letter to NCAA officials at their annual convention, which included signatures from several of the organization’s supporters who are impacted by this issue.
Members of Texas Values policy team are available for comment. Contact Ashley at [email protected] or call/text 737-314-2450 to schedule an interview.
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About Texas Values
Texas Values is the largest statewide nonprofit organization dedicated to standing for faith, family, and freedom in Texas. More information is available at txvalues.org.