#SaveWomensSportsSaturday

[coochiequeens]

The dude was competing on the women's fencing team one month after competing on the men's team.

By Amy Hamm December 10, 2024

A trans-identified male college athlete has been quietly moved onto the women’s fencing team at Wagner College, and may now be collecting a women’s scholarship. Redmond Sullivan, who had previously competed on both the male and female teams simultaneously, seized gold in the women’s category at the Connecticut Division Junior Olympic Qualifier last week.

Sullivan first began competing in female sports while attending Daniel Hand High School in Connecticut, where he won a state championship in girls track and field for shot put during a Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) competition

According to the results of the CIAC meet, Daniel Hand High School would have placed fourth had it not been for Sullivan’s dominating performance in the girls category, during which he threw the shot put nearly four feet farther than his second-place female competitor. Sullivan was the only student athlete to make it in the CIAC championship Top 10 during their first year of competition.

That same year, while competing in girls shot put and discus, he earned first, second, or third place in 14 separate competitions. Bizarrely, Sullivan was allowed to compete in girls track and field while he was also competing in boys fencing at the same school.

After graduation, Sullivan began attending Wagner College in Staten Island, New York. He joined the men’s fencing team, and participated in the New England Division USFA Pomme De Terre on June 17, 2023, during which he placed 29th out of 58 male competitors. As late as October of 2023, Sullivan was still classified as a fencer on the men’s team. But just one month later, he began competing in women’s fencing.

His transfer to the women’s team was unannounced by Wagner, and Sullivan enjoyed a significant improvement in his performance after beginning to compete against females.

At the Northeast Fencing Conference Varsity Meet in November, Sullivan won 3-0 in all of his matchups. Then, at the December 1 Seahawks Invitational, a fencing competition for Wagner College, Sullivan won two out of three fencing sets in the female category.

On Sunday, Sullivan won gold at the Connecticut Division Junior Olympic Qualifier in the Junior Women’s Foil.

Wagner College has not responded to a request for comment. On their website, the school claims to be “committed to stopping sex discrimination” in compliance with U.S. Title IX, a 1972 law that is supposed to guarantee equal opportunities for female students, including athletes.

In 2021, the Biden administration extended Title IX protections to transgender individuals, preventing the ability for colleges to keep males out of female sports. Several Republican states have sued over the federal changes to Title IX, arguing that it is unsafe and unfair for female athletes. President Elect Donald Trump has claimed he will, once in office, make changes to “keep men out of women’s sports.”

Wagner College also touts its “inclusive and supportive environments for LGBTQIA+ students.” They have published a list of “gender inclusive bathrooms” across the campus, and also instruct students to “honor the personal pronouns [of others] even when the person is not present” and to “not disclose a person’s gender identity unless you have obtained their consent.”

Marshi Smith, co-founder of the Independent Council on Women’s Sport (ICONS), condemned Wagner College for allowing Sullivan to compete against females, and added that National Collegiate Athletics Association policies have emboldened colleges to protect trans-identified male athletes.

“The NCAA is repeatedly rewarding the replacement of women in order to champion men in women’s sports. This ongoing pattern of discrimination is why we are supporting a female athlete’s lawsuit against the organization. Legal action is necessary to hold the NCAA accountable for its repeated failures to uphold fairness and equality in women’s sports, with fencing being a particularly troubling example,” she says.

In March, ICONS filed a lawsuit against the NCAA on behalf of over one dozen female athletes for letting transgender athletes compete in women’s sports and use female locker rooms.

At the center of the class-action suit is Lia Thomas, a trans-identified male who dominated the 2022 NCAA Swimming Championships while a student at the University of Pennsylvania. Thomas fared poorly while participating in male sport, but began racking up medals after transferring to the women’s team.

[coochiequeens]

A boys' division, a girls' division and an "open" division would allow everyone to compete fairly. If the parents of boys who are making this new division necessary aren't happy with this solution then they telling on themselves and their mediocre athlete sons.

OLYMPIA, Wash. (CITC) — Washington state's governing body for high school athletics announced Tuesday it is considering forming a separate division for transgender athletes to compete in.

The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) currently allows high schoolers in the state to compete in sports based on gender identity. However, a proposed policy amendment would require athletic programs to be offered separately for a boys' division, a girls' division and an "open" division.

Any athletes who wish to compete based on their gender identity would be required to participate in the "open" division, according to the proposal. Eligibility for the "open" division would also include athletes "in the process of transition that have undertaken medical changes," the proposal says.

A separate proposed amendment would also require participation in girls' sports to be limited to students whose biological sex is female. The amendment, modeled after guidance in Alaska, acknowledges such a move may spark legal challenges due to some interpreting the policy as "discriminatory."

However, the language asserts the proposed change "emphasizes inclusivity" and still encourages transgender students to participate in athletics.

...

OLYMPIA, Wash. (CITC) — Washington state's governing body for high school athletics announced Tuesday it is considering forming a separate division for transgender athletes to compete in.

The Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) currently allows high schoolers in the state to compete in sports based on gender identity. However, a proposed policy amendment would require athletic programs to be offered separately for a boys' division, a girls' division and an "open" division.

Any athletes who wish to compete based on their gender identity would be required to participate in the "open" division, according to the proposal. Eligibility for the "open" division would also include athletes "in the process of transition that have undertaken medical changes," the proposal says.

A separate proposed amendment would also require participation in girls' sports to be limited to students whose biological sex is female. The amendment, modeled after guidance in Alaska, acknowledges such a move may spark legal challenges due to some interpreting the policy as "discriminatory."

However, the language asserts the proposed change "emphasizes inclusivity" and still encourages transgender students to participate in athletics.

"Focus is on fair competition and protecting the integrity of female sports," a listed "pro" of the change reads.

The proposals follow school boards across Washington state recently urging WIAA to rethink its current gender identity policy. The Central Valley School District Board of Directors last month approved a resolution asking the governing body to "restore equity" to sports, arguing current practices "frustrate" Title IX by "allowing biological males to unfairly compete with biological females in athletic endeavors."

The Mead School District Board of Directors passed a similar resolution last month, raising concerns over how allowing students to compete based on gender identity impacts safety in girls' sports.

Some high school coaches have also voiced frustration with WIAA's current practice, such as the coach of the girls' track and field team at Cedarcrest High School in Duvall. Dean Vergillo's team placed second at this year's state championships after a transgender runner on an opposing team won the girls' 400-meter sprint.

The runner's individual victory helped her team beat Vergillo's by just eight points in the overall scoring. Vergillo claimed his team "had no idea" the transgender athlete would be competing.

"My biggest disappointment in this situation is how [WIAA] didn’t prepare us for what was coming,” he said at the time. “We’ve had many coaches, through text, emails or just verbally, state their displeasure with the situation.”

Any amendment proposed by WIAA needs approval from 60% of voting members in order to pass. The WIAA Representative Assembly will begin voting on proposals in April.