Allie Moray is the Executive Director of the American Parents Coalition, a group dedicated to fighting for equal access in sports locker rooms and gyms across the country. In this episode, we talk about the YMCA's decision to allow trans athletes to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity and comfort, and why it's important to have inclusive sports spaces in schools, gyms, and locker rooms.
00:01:44.160She is the executive director of American Parents Coalition.
00:01:48.720They've done awesome stuff across the board over these past few years.
00:01:52.800Obviously a very different political, social, cultural climate under the previous administration.
00:01:59.720Now we're seeing wins finally long overdue, both in the courts.
00:02:05.500Last week we talked to Senator Schmidt about the lawfare that we have seen, judicial wins that we've been able to benefit from across the board,
00:02:14.780especially as it pertains to a lot of these cultural conversations.
00:02:18.320We've seen wins at the state level, the federal level.
00:02:21.480But what we're getting into today, I alluded to this map, this pretty comprehensive map that has been created.
00:02:30.240We'll get into all that and more in this episode of Gains for Girls.
00:03:02.580Yeah, so we created a map that shows all of the instances across the country where there have been Title IX violations.
00:03:11.780And we focused on broader than just the school framework.
00:03:16.700So we included gyms and locker rooms like the YMCA.
00:03:20.340And this was to give parents, policymakers, and just people who care about this issue an understanding that this is not just a one-off thing here and there,
00:03:30.520which is one of the opposition and the gender activists' favorite talking points is, oh, this doesn't happen.
00:03:38.580And then the other thing that I think is important to point out is our map, while it shows that there are more than half the states across the country, there's an example.
00:03:49.280So for example, if someone participated on a team, we didn't include every single game that they participated in because we really wanted this to be a clean resource for people to be able to see how profound the impact is.
00:04:06.280So for every dot on the map that you see, there are tens, twenties, hundreds of girls who are affected by this individual case.
00:04:15.640Every girl that they play against, every girl they share a locker room with, every person who's cut or displaced from a team.
00:04:21.000So there's really a broad ripple effect, which I know you know better than anyone else.
00:04:25.160And we really wanted to be able to portray that in a clean way for people to understand.
00:04:32.160And you're absolutely right about the talking points we hear from the other side where they say, you know, it's not really happening or it's such a small percentage.
00:04:40.060Only, you know, three trans athletes in the state of Nebraska or whatever it is, implying that it's like a one-to-one.
00:04:48.000Like for every one boy, it affects one girl, just as you said, that of course is not the case.
00:04:53.980Oftentimes, every one boy on a team, every one boy in a bathroom, a locker room, it's affecting hundreds of girls.
00:05:01.520You alluded to the fact that this map is inclusive of sports and spaces like locker rooms, but it also includes all levels of schools and even local gyms like YMCA's, which is super important.
00:05:13.500Can you talk about that for a second, like the YMCA specifically, because I don't think most people realize that this is an entity that receives federal money, right?
00:05:24.320Again, first of all, YMCA stands for Young Men's Christian Association, which I won't even get into that.
00:05:30.560But they receive funds from taxpayers like you and me, correct?
00:05:38.420So the Y receives $600 million a year in federal funding, which is a lot.
00:05:45.600And as part of the executive order that was instated earlier this year, any entity that is receiving federal funds needs to be compliant with Title IX, with federal law, which seems like, you know, you would think of a pretty fair trade.
00:05:58.100So we had been watching the YMCA for a while and noticed that on their national website, they had provided guidance that said that any person, staff member, camp counselor, et cetera, who was using their facilities should be able to use the one that corresponds to their gender identity and comfort.
00:06:22.880And so that was really concerning to us.
00:06:25.280And once we were able to see that they were, in fact, a recipient of such a large amount of federal funds, we started doing our due diligence.
00:06:32.800We sent a letter to the administration, to the Department of Education, HHS, and then also to HUD, which are all the agencies responsible for distributing those funds to make them aware of it.
00:06:44.600And then also to the House Committee, the Doge House Committee, that's rooting out some of this waste, fraud, and abuse.
00:06:51.440And, you know, as you know, the Trump administration has taken this issue extremely seriously.
00:06:56.520So we're really hopeful that it's only a matter of time before they're able to kind of dig in on that rabbit hole explicitly and look at the amount of money that the Y is receiving and the fact that they're not in compliance with Title IX.
00:07:11.920I can't even tell you how many, you know, private messages I receive.
00:07:16.780I mean, seemingly daily, truthfully, and if not daily, certainly weekly from parents across the nation who have had either themselves or their children in a situation at a local YMCA where they have been exposed to men in their locker room.
00:07:35.260Looking at this map here, though, you have states like Texas and Florida on here.
00:07:40.660How is this possible when these are states that have passed some form of a Save Girls Sports Act or I know even what we've seen recently where Texas has a pretty big hearing on the Texas Women's Privacy Act?
00:07:58.300I think you're always going to have, you know, at the local level or the community level, some rogue, you know, empowered school board member or, you know, member on the board of the YMCA who thinks that they're holier than now and they're going to make a point and stand up for what they believe in or, you know, have been captured by the gender activists.
00:08:19.400And you're always going to see somebody who's kind of off, you know, employing a policy or a tactic that is not in compliance with state law.
00:08:28.600So I do think it's an important distinguishing trait to make that that doesn't necessarily mean that Florida or Texas or Virginia have allowed it, but it's happened there.
00:08:38.480I think the response in those places is stronger, faster, and they're able to pull the strings a little bit better than in a place like Minnesota or New York, Connecticut, where they're fine just letting it fly.
00:08:53.700So there's a little bit more recourse in the, quote, red states or places who have policies in place to react.
00:09:00.240But I like to use it when I'm talking to friends who care about this as a way to say, like, nobody is immune.
00:09:06.580It is everywhere. And as long as they're for as long as there's a rogue board member or, you know, an empowered superintendent who feels like they can make these changes, it will happen.
00:09:17.460And it will happen in communities, in states that don't necessarily endorse the ideology, but have a person who does.
00:09:24.320And so that's one thing that we talk to parents about constantly is you need to have the language and the talking points and the comfort level in your vernacular and your arsenal to be able to have these conversations.
00:09:37.300Because unfortunately, we're seeing more often than not that it's a matter of when you're going to have to have this talk with somebody versus, you know, if.
00:09:45.780Yeah, and those rogue members, or I think probably the better word is activists really posing as some form of bureaucrat.
00:09:57.880You mentioned being able to send letters to the HHS, you know, several agencies and department within the administration.
00:10:06.880Do you have any insight on if the Trump administration and his cabinet will be launching investigations into other states or institutions soon?
00:10:15.840As you said, of course, we've seen pushback pretty heavy in California and Maine.
00:10:21.800I know, of course, there was that pretty viral interaction between Governor Mills and President Trump.
00:10:26.360We've seen them push back against even specific universities like the University of Pennsylvania.
00:10:31.760Do you guys have any insight on what's next or what we can expect to see from the administration?
00:10:39.780I'm hesitant to, you know, speak for them.
00:10:41.740But I think all of us who are active in this space can say that we have all observed and been able to see that they take this issue very seriously.
00:12:03.220I think because the Trump administration is so vocal, we see a lot of action.
00:12:09.660But the states, especially those who are on the blue side of things or just have the activists that we've been discussing thus far, they're doubling down.
00:12:19.180And I know, speaking from our map specifically, more than 30 of the instances that we actually have plotted on the map are post-executive order.
00:12:28.440So I think we all saw this environment kind of start post-COVID, 2021, 22, and then it kind of like has gained steam from there.
00:12:39.520But in the places where they've really doubled down on this, it's continuing to intensify.
00:12:45.580So I don't think we can take our foot off the gas.
00:12:48.180And I think parents are going to continue to push back and want to believe that we're past it.
00:12:53.920And as a society, I think many parents in their head are and are going to continue to get more and more frustrated when they see this double down and these additional examples of the lack of compliance.
00:13:06.960Because everyone wants to believe we're past it, but we're not.
00:13:09.860I mean, the fight is far from over, unfortunately.
00:13:12.320But I do think we may get some clarity in understanding that the Supreme Court has a willingness to take up some cases specific to this.
00:13:20.580So hopefully, you know, we get some clarity there.
00:13:35.600It rears its head and gnashes its teeth at the sign of any pushback.
00:13:40.280I want to get your thoughts on this and what you kind of make of this.
00:13:44.240We saw just recently out of, I believe it was the Temecula Valley Unified School District in California.
00:13:51.180They are reportedly forcing young girls to fill out a mental health accommodation form to declare that they have a mental health issue as young girls if they don't want boys invading the girls' restroom or locker room at school.
00:14:09.460So, again, the message that's being sent here is because, or I guess the girls who don't want to forcibly undress next to or in front of boys, the school systems in California, specifically here, the Temecula Valley Unified School District, they're telling the girls that they're the mentally deranged ones.
00:14:34.120And honestly, I think parents are pretty united in any form of mental health survey coming from the school writ large is an absurd thing to expect students to fill out.
00:14:45.680I mean, kids, by and large, are extremely receptive to suggestive messaging.
00:14:50.460If you're asking a kid who has never otherwise thought about suicide or self-harm or eating disorders, if you're actively asking them about it, you're planting those seeds.
00:15:01.580And that's true on any mental health issue.
00:15:04.360So if there's not reason or cause for concern to be having those conversations with kids, first of all, they should be having their parents first with their express consent because this is, you know, medical advice and conversation.
00:15:16.780No, no, no adult should be having those conversations with kids without the parents involved anyway.
00:15:21.880But even still, by and large, those conversations, surveys, et cetera, are just extremely inappropriate.
00:15:28.620And this one just happens to be absurd on its face.
00:15:31.840Like you said, I mean, it's just, it's wild.
00:15:34.600Yeah, I was, the more I thought about this, the more I thought to myself, you know, let's say a young girl,
00:15:41.200naive to, to, you know, anything beyond the fact that she knows it's uncomfortable to share a locker room with the boy.
00:15:48.480Let's say she does fill out this form.
00:15:50.680Like, could that eventually affect her ability to own a gun?
00:15:55.100Let's say, if again, you have some form of a mental health issue on any sort of record.
00:16:01.440I mean, there are some serious implications here that should certainly be considered.
00:16:06.100For listeners who are concerned about Title IX protections, or maybe they see this map and they know of examples happening in their state, yet it's not listed here on the map.
00:16:16.940What are some concrete steps they should take either within their schools or local districts, or how can they effectively put this on the radar for what you all are doing?
00:16:30.900So for the map specifically, we have a form that you can fill out on our website, AmericanParentsCoalition.org, where you can tell us about those instances, and we'll go ahead and we'll add them to the map.
00:16:42.280I'm sure there are countless examples that we have not included.
00:16:46.620We're going just from public reporting.
00:16:48.560So we would welcome additional instances.
00:16:51.680And then as far as resources, we also have on our website a lot of great stuff you can use.
00:16:57.700So our organization does a lot of advocacy on the, like, public policy side of things.
00:17:02.580But one thing that we think is extremely important is, like, public policy takes time.
00:17:07.340Your family is, like, in the trenches, rolling and moving, like, today.
00:17:11.360And that's not always happening at the same speed as public policy.
00:17:15.560So we have a lot of just conversation guides on our websites.
00:17:19.280We call them, like, the kitchen table conversations.
00:17:21.760So ways to talk to your kids about some of these, like, sticky issues to empower you with, you know, the language and the understanding that you need to have those important conversations.
00:17:31.800And then we also have a lot of sample letters, talking points, and conversation guides that you can take with you to either a school board meeting or to gather a group of parents and talk to, you know, an advisor for a sports league or, you know, someone who's running something like that.
00:17:51.060Because we haven't even talked about this at all, but I'm sure I know you know about organizations like AAU and these outside sports groups.
00:18:00.340I mean, they're dealing with the same stuff.
00:18:02.260And they're not, they kind of fall in this weird, mushy category because Title IX may not be receiving federal funding.
00:18:09.320And so Title IX, you know, is different with them.
00:18:13.540So we have a lot of resources on our website where parents can, you know, access that and have these conversations at home and with their kids and within their community to affect change at the much smaller level.
00:18:26.300While these organizations kind of come together and we push back either at the federal or the public policy and fundraising side of things.
00:18:48.700Actually, I believe it's more impactful if you're just, again, you're everyday American who has found yourself or maybe someone you know, someone you love, your child at the center of these cultural issues.
00:19:01.980These stories are really important and deserve to be heard.
00:19:06.460So thank you for everything you guys are doing.
00:19:08.960What are some other, I guess, initiatives or campaigns that you guys at American Parents Coalition are pushing, especially, I think, throughout the next, let's say, three and a half, a little less than three and a half years with President Trump in office?
00:19:22.360We're really focused a lot on social media, parental controls, AI, chatbots.
00:19:29.180There's a lot of kind of scary stuff, unfortunately, in that space for the tween and teen age kids.
00:19:36.580Just the lack of parental controls, appropriate parental controls.
00:19:40.380We very much advocate for delay as long as possible, but, you know, you find yourself, you can't take kids out of the world.
00:19:49.200There are going to be exposures either at friends' houses or even in school, kids handed a Chromebook, et cetera.
00:19:55.540So we have a lot of resources and we're doing a lot on navigating those types of parental controls and Internet-related things, social media.
00:20:07.060And then we're also in the midst of a big campaign we call Stop the Docs.
00:20:11.180So, again, still on this kind of transgender issue side of things, but more on the health and medical side, big focus on the fact that these, quote, treatments are not treatments.
00:20:24.000They're taking otherwise healthy kids and making them medical patients for life, which, you know, I'm sure pharma and the medical industry love.
00:20:46.160So we're looking at the American Academy of Pediatrics and just some of these larger organizations writ large and trying to unpack why and bring forward the research to show that these recommendations from organizations like the AAP are not rooted in research and medicine.