Riley Gaines on why female athletes had to take action against the NCAA
Riley Gaines explains on "OutKick The Morning" why female athletes had to launch a legal battle against the NCAA over its transgender policy.
The National Organization for Women (NOW) no longer supports women, several people declared after a controversial social media post.
NOW responded to the news of former and current college athletes filing a lawsuit against the NCAA, accusing it of violating their Title IX rights by allowing transgender swimmer Lia Thomas to compete in the women’s championship back in 2022.
According to the women’s rights group, actions like these were the work of "White supremacist patriarchy," rather than a concern for equality.
The National Organization for Women attacked the controversy surrounding transgender athletes playing in girls' sports as being fueled by White supremacist patriarchy. (Tamir Kalifa/Getty Images)
"Repeat after us: Weaponizing womenhood against other women is white supremacist patriarchy at work. Making people believe there isn't enough space for trans women in sports is white supremacist patriarchy at work," the post read.
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This response faced swift backlash, particularly for women athletes advocate Riley Gaines, who helped file the lawsuit.
"I've never seen so many oppression buzzwords in one sentence. Apparently, advocating for fair sport makes me a white supremacist. I wonder if my attorney will agree. (in case you were wondering, NOW stands for National Organization of Women lol)," the host of Outkick's Gaines for Girls podcast wrote.
NOW's post later received a Community Note claiming that transgender athletes are barred from competing in sports.
"Transwomen are still able to compete in the category of their birth sex or an Open category, they are not excluded from sport. World Aquatics prohibits anyone who has undergone any part of male puberty from entering the Female category," the note read, citing the World Aquatics policy from March.
Former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines joined more than a dozen other athletes in a lawsuit against the NCAA. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Other social media users similarly piled on NOW’s post, accusing the organization of abandoning its mission of protecting women.
"Holy crap, the National Organization for Women says wanting women’s sports to be made up of women is ‘white supremacist patriarchy at work,’" OutKick founder Clay Travis wrote.
Townhall.com columnist Brad Slager mocked, "You posted this a day early, but I’m RTing on April Fools so people see your joke."
"I can’t believe I worked here when I was in college. I’m embarrassed for you. The patriarchy is telling women to sit down and shut up and accept whatever unfairness and invasion of privacy is hurled their way," former gymnast Jennifer Sey remarked.
Former Team USA championship runner Carilyn Johnson exclaimed, "When the most prominent women’s rights organization tells women to sit down and shut up so that a group of entitled men can appropriate women’s identities for their own benefit, the group has devolved into a men’s rights organization. Shaming women for speaking out is the very definition of bigoted supremacist patriarchy. Stop gaslighting women."
"You are such a complete and utter embarrassment," president of Women's Declaration International-USA Kara Dansky declared.
Conservative user Amy Curtis similarly mocked, "Repeat after me: you are lunatics."
Independent Women’s Forum spokesperson Paula Scanlan asked, "’White supremacist patriarchy’ I advocate for these things as a mixed race person and I have an immigrant mother. Why is this ALWAYS about race?"
Fox News Digital reached out to NOW for a comment.
NOW previously supported the Equality Act to protect transgender student athletes in women's sports. (AP Photo/Samuel Metz)
NOW previously supported transgender athletes competing with women after the House of Representatives passed the Equality Act in 2021 which would have banned discrimination based on gender identity.
"As courts and scientists overwhelmingly have stated, transgender girls and women are girls and women," the group said in a statement at the time. "Unfortunately, transgender girls’ and women’s participation in school sports consistent with their gender identity has become a cudgel used to attack the [Equality] Act."
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