Defending Women's Sports, Parental Rights, and More
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Summary
Christiana Kiefer is Senior Counsel with the Center for Conscious Initiatives and the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) which works to expand Christian religious liberties and practices within public schools and government. She has been a key part of many cases, including the first lawsuit that I ever heard about surrounding men and women s sports in the case out of Connecticut.
Transcript
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hello everybody thank you for tuning in to the gains for girls podcast make sure you check us
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out anywhere where you get your podcast be sure to check us out at outkick.com super exciting
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because fox nation is now airing my show other outkick shows so you can check that out at fox
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nation.com super glad you're here today's guest we've talked to many attorney generals we've
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talked to other lawyers as it pertains to the gender ideology movement uh since the inception
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of gains for girls but i figured it was time to get another attorney another lawyer back on especially
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given the recent supreme court uh win that we saw surrounding title nine but i think a lot of people
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misinterpreted what this really meant what it meant for women's sports what it meant for the harmful
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severe rewrite that we have seen from the biden harris administration and so today we are having
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on christiana keifer uh she is a she serves as senior counsel with adf alliance defending freedom
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which has been and continues to do phenomenal work adf they work to expand christian religious liberties
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and practices within public schools or government they're great i believe they're the largest legal
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organization advancing the god-given right to live and to speak the truth they have 15 supreme court wins
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i believe their win rate is is a little over 80 percent um christiana she is a key member of the
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center for conscious initiatives uh she has been a key part of many cases including the first lawsuit
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that i ever heard about surrounding men and women's sports uh with the case out of connecticut and so
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super excited for this conversation be sure to check it out here well christiana thank you for joining
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the gains for girls podcast uh i have so enjoyed over these past two years or so uh getting to spend
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some time with you at different events different rallies different press conferences uh you really
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are a a force of nature and so before we get into anything uh would you explain the recent scotus
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win surrounding title nine i think many people saw the headline and figured that this was in game
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for the biden harris administration's harmful rewrite and while it was a win uh the fight is far from
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over i know you guys were involved in this victory and so would you explain what this ruling means
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yeah well to take a step back for the bigger picture just for a moment as you know the new title
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nine rewrite was issued by the biden harris administration this past spring and to date 26
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states have put it on hold have issued injunctions saying you're not allowed to implement that here
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while lawsuits are ongoing now the biden harris administration appealed that all the way to the
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supreme court on an emergency basis and basically asked the court to partially reinstate the rules
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in some of those states so it's a very technical request and a technical response but the good news is
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the court said no the court unanimously agreed that the lower courts were right to put all of the title
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nine rule the new rule the biden harris rule on pause while the litigation is ongoing and while the
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court didn't give us a whole lot of analysis there the good news is that in order to reach that conclusion
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the court had to agree with the states with the female athletes and with the other plaintiffs
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that they were likely to show that the title nine rule is unlawful and unconstitutional so it's a it's a
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great win it's a an intermediate win it doesn't deal with the title nine rewrite once and for all
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but it's definitely a very hopeful sign well that's fantastic uh it's wild to me that uh this is
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something that the supreme court has to undertake uh whether it's this of course we've seen cases out of
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idaho west virginia uh the connecticut case uh which was really the first of its kind and i know you guys
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represented selena soul chelsea mitchell uh some of the other female athletes who lost out on
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i believe it was 15 state titles because of two boys who were allowed to compete um in the girls
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track and field high school championships in connecticut uh and so would you be willing to
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discuss that case because again it was really monumental uh and it has been foundational for uh over
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these past five or so years now uh for the rest of the movement yes so back in 2019 i started to hear
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stories out of the state of connecticut about two male athletes that were really dominating girls track
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and field and we were put in touch with selena chelsea alana and ashley and had the privilege of
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on their behalf filing that first federal lawsuit in the nation to ensure that female athletes only have
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to compete against other females in women and girls sports as you noted those two males not only won 15
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girls state championship titles over the course of their high school careers but they also set 17
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new individual meet records they deprived girls of advancement opportunities which as you know for many
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of those girls it was their one shot at getting into a state championship opportunity and that was denied
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them so we filed that first federal lawsuit back in 2020 and it's been a a long road for these very
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brave young women who were ignored by coaches and school administrators and even state lawmakers all of
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them refused to help them and take a stand for female athletes so we uh we filed that federal lawsuit
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and we have been all the way up to the second circuit not once but twice and the court there finally
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agreed with us that these young women have a right to make their full case under title nine that
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they have had real tangible lost opportunities and lost records and lost um placements lost championship
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titles and so they deserve to be able to make their full case under title nine so here we are four years
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later we are just now back down at the district court we had a recent hearing and the court is considering
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whether or not he will allow the case to move forward on the merits so they've it's really been
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it's been a challenge for these brave female athletes but it's been so encouraging to see
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other voices like yourself and others who across the country are now standing up and speaking out
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and we're really starting to see some some momentum some change happening absolutely yeah you mentioned
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it's a challenge for these girls um five you said four or five years now these girls have been
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have been fighting and so uh while yes it is a an emotional toll it's a large time investment too
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which i think is why a lot of people hesitate on ultimately pursuing legal action which is why
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the cases that we do have forward certainly the cases that you guys are are representing uh they're
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they're so important what about athletes who have been injured in their sports is this something
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that adf or you personally have experience in representing or at least hearing about
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so certainly i've heard a number of stories of young women um obviously our mutual friend who
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is in north carolina who was on the receiving end of a male's very powerful volleyball strike and suffered
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debilitating um concussive effects we certainly have seen um the young woman in massachusetts and
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who had her teeth knocked out because there was a male athlete competing on the opposing girls team
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in field hockey so if there's a huge um safety risk for young women being forced to compete against
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men um especially in these types of contact sports the litigation that we're involved in right now i
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don't believe any of our female athletes have had personal experience in being on the receiving
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end of those those physical effects but it's certainly a reality on the ground and it is something
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that i think female athletes and parents and coaches should be deeply concerned about especially in
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light of the biden harris administration's attempt to rewrite title nine and make it the law of the land
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for males to have access to female sports and spaces absolutely i think as a common sense what i would
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consider i consider myself a common sense rational uh sensible person it's hard for me to to understand
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the other side's argument sometimes i i understand that they're coming from a place of of inclusivity
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um so what are some of the the legal challenges that you face i guess more more plainly what is the other
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side's argument in court so there's a couple of cases that alliance defending freedom has asked the
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supreme court to take this term which is really exciting one out of the state of idaho hecox versus
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little and one out of the state of west virginia bpj versus west virginia both of those cases involve
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states that have asked the states that have passed laws to protect women's sports and they say you have
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a women or girls sports team you only have women or girls competing on those teams so those cases are
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being presented to be honest i completely forgot what your question was initially so so sorry about that
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that fine you're totally fine it was uh it was just asking about what what the other sides are
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thank you yeah so in both of those cases the other side is essentially arguing that to protect women
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and girls based on their sex discriminates based on transgender identity and that's simply false
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women and girls under title nine for the last 50 plus years have been protected based on their sex
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in order to ensure that they have fair athletic opportunities the same types of opportunities
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that their male counterparts have and in order to ensure that they have that level playing field those
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athletic opportunities not just to be on the podium but to earn college scholarships and pursue the
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careers of their dreams they must have protections based on their biological sex
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speaking of the title nine rewrite i mean is this something that can easily kind of have its course
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corrected or is there lots of damage control to do to ultimately uh i mean bottom line ensure that no
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men are in women's sports which is number 17 on trump's uh platform that he issued i believe at the rnc
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and has continued campaigning on well you certainly a different administration could certainly roll back
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these new title nine rule changes but look there's a lot of damage that's already been done by state
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legislatures across the country that have these gender ideology policies in their state laws at the local
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level school districts have passed these policies so even once we're able to take care of these new title
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nine changes once and for all and i do think we'll win this we are still facing a situation where women
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and girls are not protected in every state across the us and that's something that we we really want to
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see take place absolutely as a an attorney um how has language been manipulated i mentioned right we
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hear words like compassion we hear words like inclusion i think it's fairly obvious to see how it's really
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not inclusive to ask women to to step aside and allow men onto our podiums but even the phrasing
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of i mean the word sex itself has become uh misconstrued and we have unelected bureaucrats and officials
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going through the back door and reinterpreting these words to mean what they want it to mean does that
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make your job as as an attorney as a lawyer difficult absolutely it makes it really difficult to have a rational
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argument or even a conversation about these issues because unless we define our terms it's
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difficult to know if we're using them in the same way i've certainly been on the receiving end of
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briefs that were filed on behalf of these male athletes that say that they their biological sex is
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female and we know that that's simply incorrect as a matter of biology it's simply wrong they are male and
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so yes the co-opting of the terms has has made it very challenging to have these conversations um not just in the
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the court of law but in the in the public sphere which is why i would encourage women and girls and
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and your audience to make sure that we're using terms that are clear use the most scientific terms
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available to us and certainly not um i guess bow at the altar of gender ideology and use these fake
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terms like cisgender and the list the list goes on um we need to be referring to males as males and females
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as females so that we know what we're talking about i could not agree more i think it's easy to fall into
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the trap um you know you want to be kind you want to be respectful of course i i mean i do and so at
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first when i had really been thrust into this position that that i'm in i adhered to the pronoun
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stuff the preferred pronouns the biologically incorrect pronouns um i referred to myself as a biological
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female which now looking back it's really just silly i think people are desperate for clear sex
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based language and so i couldn't agree more i implore everyone listening uh to do just as you said
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uh you mentioned go ahead sorry oh i was just going to comment um i just want to underscore what
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you said um the most compassionate and the most respectful terms are the clearest and the most
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biologically sound absolutely uh you mentioned these briefs that are being filed uh what about
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groups like the national women's law center surely they defend women's rights to compete fairly don't
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they well let's just say that back in 2019 when we first heard about the connecticut girls and what
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was taking place with the unfair competition they were facing um we sort of waited to see where are the
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the women's groups certainly this is the type of case that they would be delighted to undertake to
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defend like women have for decades fought to overcome discrimination and to be able to have that fair
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playing field to have those access the access to education athletic opportunities and so it was um
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it was very telling when none of the women's legal groups were willing to take a stand with actual
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females uh for female opportunities and i think it's something i would love to see them turn around
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absolutely uh i saw a video on x i mean just recently actually i saw it because elon musk
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commented on it i believe he commented something like um you know this is insane and this is coming
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from you know he is a parent with it with a child who who unfortunately has gone through uh hormones and
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social transitioning at least but he said something to the effect of this social mind virus is is spreading
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throughout western civilization but it's it was on a case that you guys um are representing i believe
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it was out of a swiss court um if if you know the case i'm talking about it it was about parental rights
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um it was really powerful this video that i saw i also saw another video i believe it was dan and
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jennifer mead in a case i think it was mead versus rockford public schools um so lots of different
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cases regarding parental rights right now uh would you be willing to just touch on the importance of
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of course parental rights and maybe some of the details of these cases sure yeah so i just would
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underscore how insidious this ideology is and how it has permeated so many layers of our society including
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school districts for example so in the mead situation they had a middle school daughter who was
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being secretly trans at school um the school district was using masculine pronouns masculine
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names for her um and hiding that intentionally hiding that from her parents um even though the parents
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have been working closely with the school district to address a number of mental health concerns for
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this young woman um and come to find out they were in essence perpetuating that by pushing her towards
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this transgender ideology i've also seen situations where a young woman was on a school trip to
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washington dc and was um assigned to share not just a hotel room but to share a bed with a male um fellow
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student who claimed a female identity and the parent she she stepped away um she secretly called her
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parents and asked for help um look this is this is so wrong so deeply wrong the swiss case that you
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mentioned we there was a young woman who was 16 years old and her parents were attempting to get
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her the mental health support and assistance that she needed and the swiss courts found that to be
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insufficient because they were not willing to provide her with puberty blockers and cross-tox
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hormones and other interventions to push her towards a transgender identity so it's it's deeply concerning
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to see it is a violation of parental rights like the individuals who love these children more than anyone
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else in the world and have their best interests at heart are being really shut out of the process
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as the ideology is being pushed and foisted on their kids absolutely uh you guys are doing phenomenal
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work as it pertains to of course the topics that we talked about the gender ideology movement parental
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rights but also religious liberty free speech and so we couldn't be more grateful for for you personally
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and again for alliance defending freedom uh how can we support you and adf and follow along with
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ongoing and future cases absolutely i'd encourage you all to visit adflegal.org where you can find out
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more about our litigation the title nine lawsuits the uh gender ideology parental rights lawsuits and so much
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more awesome well thank you christiana thanks for having me thank you guys for tuning in be sure to check
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out adflegal.org to check out the work that they are doing uh the necessary the critical work that
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they're doing uh really i like i said i have just been honored to be involved with them in different
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capacities over the past few years uh wonderful people wonderful organization uh again check us out
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at outkick.com uh follow gains for girls anywhere where you get your podcasts you can check us out
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now at foxnation.com and we will see you again next week