At today's House DOGE Committee hearing, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) slammed the inclusion of transgender athletes in women's sports, and played a video of one witnesses's injury during a volleyball game in which a transgender participant played.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Delivering on government efficiency will come to order.
00:03Welcome, everyone.
00:04Without objection, the chair may declare a recess at any time.
00:09I recognize myself for the purpose of making an opening statement.
00:13Good afternoon and welcome, everyone.
00:15I would like to start by playing a video of why we are here today.
00:20So if we can go ahead and play that, please.
00:30Where's our digital team?
00:36Where's our digital team?
00:38Here we go.
00:40...order to ban men from playing in women's sports.
00:46There are only two sexes, male and female, and we are not going to tolerate biological men competing in sports or impeding in private spaces for women like myself or you.
00:56Her female fencer was given the ultimate punishment for refusing to compete against a biological man.
01:02At the Portland Interscholastic Wheat Championships, a trans sophomore runner for McDaniel High School.
01:08And Thomas pulling away over the final 150 meters.
01:13Thomas wins the NCAA championship.
01:16Men should not be hurting women.
01:19They're hurting women very badly.
01:21They're hurting women.
01:22I was severely injured in a high school volleyball game by a transgender athlete on the opposing team.
01:28Anyone who disobeys federal law will be either prosecuted, sued, or say goodbye to your federal funding.
01:34Female athletes should never be forced to compete against mentally ill biological men who parade around in women's clothes.
01:54But we'll hear from witnesses today who had to face off against biological male competitors.
02:02This led one to suffer a life-altering physical injury from a volleyball spike to her head.
02:08The other was thrown out of a recent fencing competition for refusing to compete against a man.
02:16Why is this happening when we have federal laws on the books intended to foster women's sports?
02:23Back in 1972, Congress adopted Title IX to create and protect equal athletic opportunity for girls and women in schools and colleges.
02:34Congress included similar language in legislation governing other amateur sports competitions.
02:40The law chartering the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee, for instance, authorizes the Olympic Committee to recognize and empower national governing bodies to oversee individual sports on a national level.
02:54That includes determining how athletes are chosen to represent the U.S. in the Olympic Games and other international competitions.
03:04These NGBs, such as USA Fencing, have statutory duties and obligations, including promoting equal athletic opportunity for women, biological women.
03:17Specifically, NGBs are to provide equitable support and encouragement for participation by women where separate programs for male and female athletes are conducted on a national basis.
03:31Yet, USA Fencing makes a mockery out of women's fencing by allowing biological males to compete in its women's fencing competitions.
03:43We understand there are roughly 200 biological males competing in the USA Fencing Women's Division.
03:51This includes males who have won national titles and represented the U.S. in international competition in women's fencing.
04:00We subpoenaed the Board Chair of USA Fencing, Damien LaFelte, to appear here today.
04:08We did so because the Board is responsible for setting USA Fencing policies and for ensuring those policies comply with federal law.
04:18At a recent Board meeting where Mr. LaFelte presided, the Board determined it would change its policy on transgender athletes if, and only if,
04:29forced to do so.
04:31Some science shows that men have numerous physical advantages over women that create unfair and potentially dangerous competitions.
04:41Such physical advantages are significant in fencing.
04:45According to a letter we received from USA Fencing Board member Andre Giva, a coach of Olympians and world champions,
04:53quote,
04:55transgender women fencers have significant advantages in women's competitions, he writes,
05:01citing advantages in body size, reach, shoulder width, muscle development, explosive strength, and recovery capacity.
05:11The United Nations report issued last year finds that testosterone suppression does not eliminate the advantage of biological males to avoid the loss of a fair opportunity.
05:23It concludes, males must not compete in female categories of sport.
05:30But it's not surprising that the USA Fencing policy on trans competitors ignores the science.
05:36The Board is not shy about putting politics ahead of the sport, ahead of women, and ahead of the law,
05:42and selecting sites for its national fencing events.
05:46For instance, the Board policy is to avoid states whose laws and policies on LGBTQ rights and abortion it opposes.
05:58It uses equality maps to determine which states to blacklist from its competitions and which states to favor.
06:07This ends up favoring a lot of blue states and harming a lot of red ones.
06:12So it creates politically determined winners and losers.
06:17But it has absolutely nothing to do with fencing.
06:20And it contradicts USA Fencing's statutory duty as an NGB to develop interest and participation throughout the United States in fencing.
06:31Recently, the Board even voted against playing the national anthem at its events.
06:36So we shouldn't be surprised that the Board opposed the creation of an all-female task force to re-evaluate its transgender policy.
06:45And it has never surveyed its membership one simple question.
06:50Do you support transgender athletes competing in women's competitions?
06:55Notably, Americans broadly have been polled on that question, and the response is overwhelming.
07:03A New York Times ipsis poll this past January found 94% of Republicans, 67% of Democrats, and 64% of Independents agree.
07:16Keep men out of women's sports.
07:20Americans also re-elected President Trump in November, and he spoke on their behalf in February when he issued his executive order keeping men out of women's sports.
07:31The United States is hosting the Summer Games in Los Angeles in 2028.
07:36It's a great time for us to once again take the lead in protecting and preserving the ability of women to engage in safe, fair, athletic competition by keeping biological men out of women's sports.
07:51A United Nations report issued last August, most noted, noted female athletes worldwide have lost out on numerous medal opportunities.
08:03Due to policies allowing males to compete in the women's category, more than 600 female athletes in more than 400 competitions
08:13have lost more than 890 medals in 29 different sports.
08:20I don't want any more women missing out on medal opportunities, avoiding athletic competitions, or missing out on college scholarships.
08:29And I don't want to see any more girls or women getting hurt.
08:33We cannot and should not forget the gruesome injury suffered by one of our witnesses here today, Peyton McNabb.
08:42It happened when she was spiked in the head by a male athlete who identified as a transgender woman.
08:51And I'd like to ask the digital team to please play this video now.
08:55That is sick.
09:08This is why I look forward to fighting and winning the battle to keep men out of women's sports alongside President Trump and brave women like Stephanie and Peyton who are here today.
09:21Now you're going to hear from our Democrat colleagues who are going to fight for these mentally ill biological men to continue beating women and stealing their competitions, stealing their medals, and stealing their national championships.
09:37And with that, I yield to the ranking member Stansbury for her opening statement.
09:42All right.
09:44Well, thank you, Madam Chairwoman.
09:46As you can see, it's going to be an interesting hearing today.
09:50Welcome to the Oversight Committee, and in particular, the DOGE subcommittee.
09:54I do want to say welcome to our guests and to your families.
09:57We do appreciate all of you coming.
09:59Dr.
10:00Dr.
10:05Dr.
10:09Dr.
10:14Mr.