U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst spoke out Thursday in opposition to proposed rule change to Title IX that might prohibit full bans on transgender college students from collaborating on sports activities groups which are per their gender identification.

Ernst and Rep. Claudia Tenney, a New York Republican, have launched a decision to declare the week of June 23 as “National Women’s Sports Week” in honor of Title IX.

This week marks 50 years for the reason that regulation’s enactment. In recognizing the achievements of ladies athletes, Ernst additionally mentioned ladies’s sports activities are below assault by the White House as a result of Biden administration’s proposed adjustments to Title IX.

“We cannot and will not allow our daughters to be erased,” Ernst mentioned in an announcement. “Doors that were opened over 50 years ago are being slammed in the faces of girls across the country because of the progressive left’s radical gender ideology.”

One of the adjustments, proposed by the Biden administration in April, prohibits full bans of transgender pupil athletes’ participation in sports activities, however permits guidelines that prohibit transgender college students from competing in sure aggressive highschool and school sports activities, in addition to permitting particular bans which are based mostly on age and the game.

Athletes Riley Gaines, Paula Scanlan, and Payton McNabb held a press convention in Washington, D.C., Thursday opposing the measure, and asking lawmakers to help Ernst and Tenney’s decision. McNabb, a former highschool volleyball participant, spoke about her expertise sustaining a concussion and neck harm when a transgender volleyball participant spiked a ball that hit her face.

McNabb mentioned her harm may have been prevented by not permitting transgender ladies to compete in ladies’s sports activities.

“I was always very aware of the possibility of injury when playing,” McNabb mentioned. “But my experience on the court that day was different … This incident was 100% avoidable if my rival female athletes had not been excluded on the basis of being inclusive.”

Ernst was not capable of attend the information convention, however launched a video message in help of the decision. She additionally addressed the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, passed by the U.S. House alongside celebration strains in April. While it’s unlikely to be heard within the Democratic-led Senate, the White House said Biden would veto the laws that seeks to chop federal funding from colleges and faculties that permit transgender pupil athletes to take part in ladies’s sports activities and athletic occasions.

“Every time a girl steps onto the mat, court, field or track, she should know she has every opportunity to compete and win,” Ernst mentioned within the video. “We must protect women’s sports.”

Gov. Kim Reynolds signed legislation in 2022 prohibiting transgender ladies athletes from collaborating in ladies’s sports activities groups at Ok-12 colleges and faculties which are members of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) or the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA).

In 2023, Reynolds signed into law a measure prohibiting transgender youth from utilizing faculty loos and locker rooms not per their gender assigned at beginning, along with a ban on gender-affirming look after minors.

Democrats say such measures prohibiting transgender college students from collaborating in sports activities is a type of discrimination. The discrimination that transgender youth face is the explanation these college students must be protected below Title IX, U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona told House lawmakers in May.

“There are students right now that are hurting because elected officials have chosen to use their platform to further ostracize them,” Cardona mentioned.