- The Washington Times - Thursday, October 19, 2023

The NCAA inserted a biological male into the women’s locker room during last year’s collegiate swimming championships without the consent of female athletes — and Sen. Josh Hawley would like to know if that’s still the standard.

The Missouri Republican asked NCAA President Charlie Baker to clarify the organization’s stance after he told a Senate panel he wasn’t sure about the current policy on transgender athletes in opposite-sex facilities.

“Yesterday you testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on issues in collegiate athletics. Arguably none is more important than the safety of student athletes,” Mr. Hawley said Wednesday in a letter. “That is why I asked you about Riley Gaines, and her Senate testimony earlier this year that the NCAA forced her and other female athletes both to accept a biological man in their locker room and to change alongside this person.”

By “this person,” Mr. Hawley referred to former University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas, the male-to-female transgender athlete who won the 500-yard freestyle at the 2022 NCAA Division I women’s swimming and diving championships.

Asked at the hearing about the NCAA’s locker room standard, Mr. Baker said, “First of all, I’m not going to defend what happened in 2022. I wasn’t there.”

“What I will say is we have very specific rules and standards around the safety and security of all our student athletes, and anyone who hosts one of our national championships has to accept that they know what they are and abide by them accordingly,” he said.

Pressed on the transgender locker room situation, Mr. Baker appeared to walk it back, saying “I don’t believe that policy would be the policy we would use today.”

In his letter, Mr. Hawley said “you declined to state what the NCAA’s policy actually is. This is your chance.”

The NCAA has a troubled history of using student athletes for financial gain while ignoring their concerns and needs — and in this case, their basic safety,” the senator said. “The American public deserves honest answers.”

Ms. Gaines, a former University of Kentucky swimmer, told the Senate committee in June that the “NCAA forced me and my fellow swimmers to share a locker room with Thomas.” She said she was informed by an NCAA official that the locker room was now unisex.

“Let me be clear: We were not forewarned, we were not asked for our consent, and we did not give our consent,” Ms. Gaines said in her testimony. “In swimming locker rooms you’re undressing quickly in front of one another, fully naked. I was forced to take off my swimsuit in front of a man.”

Another former collegiate athlete, Paula Scanlan, said she and other UPenn female swimmers were “forced to undress in the presence of Lia, a 6-4 biological male fully intact, with male genitalia, 18 times per week.”

“Some girls opted to change in bathroom stalls and others used the family bathroom to avoid this,” Ms. Scanlan told the House Judiciary Committee in July.

“When we tried to voice our concerns to the athletic department, we were told that Lia’s swimming and being in our locker room was a non-negotiable,” she said, “and we were offered psychological services to attempt to reeducate us to become comfortable with the idea of undressing in front of a male.”

Mr. Hawley also asked if the NCAA would apologize to “female student athletes who were required to share locker rooms and other intimate spaces with biological men.”

The NCAA has changed its eligibility standards on transgender athletes by deferring to the national sports governing bodies, but has not commented publicly on whether women are still expected to share locker rooms with male-born competitors who identify as female.

• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.

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