Sitting Out For Women
Episode Stats
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168.9658
Summary
In this episode of the Gains For Girls Podcast, I sit down with four of the five brave young girls based out of West Vinton, Virginia who took the decisive action and said no to competing against a boy at the state track and field championships.
Transcript
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hey everybody welcome back to the gains for girls podcast you may remember a couple weeks ago
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a video going viral i mean millions and millions of views uh this video was an outkick exclusive
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actually but in this video we saw five brave young girls based out of west virginia who took
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the decisive action and saying no we're not going to be competing against a boy this was a middle
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school track and field championships the event was shot put in this video we see the five girls
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they step into the ring into the circle but ultimately they decided to walk out without
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ever throwing the shot put ultimately this action that they took ended up getting them banned yes
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you heard that right the girls got banned from girls sports they were banned from future competition
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by their school district for protesting in this way the boy wasn't banned no that would make way too
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much sense to ban the boy from girls sports let's ban the girls from girls sports uh which resulted
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in the girls several of them plus their parents suing the school board the school district which
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got the ruling overturned so that is certainly a big win but man it is a a sad sad day a sad world that
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we live in when 13 14 year old girls have to be the adults in the room they have to be the ones
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to defend themselves aren't there people in place whose job it is to protect these girls what about the
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coaches what about the school district these girls parents which i'll say i met these girls
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parents and they have wonderful wonderful parents who supported these girls every step of the way
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nonetheless it's insane that these girls have to do this have to be spending their time middle school
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age girls talking about this fighting for the rights of women like so many women did before them
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but anyways i am so excited for this conversation so check out the conversation and interview here with
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four of the five brave young west virginian girls well girls i am so excited to have you guys on i know
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we got to meet each other in person down in west virginia at the capitol uh but uh and i told you this
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there and i will tell you it 10 times over you guys and the actions that you have taken as such young
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girls are brave it is inspiring and i think you guys set the precedent and the standard for people
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even far beyond your age so i would be remiss if i did not tell you guys that but i wanted to give
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you guys the opportunity to share a little bit about the instance of which i'm referring to here
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the video went viral millions and millions and millions of views which i know that you guys never
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anticipated that is certainly not why you guys did what you did but emmy would you feel comfortable
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sharing the experience of what i'm referring to here last year we really this is my first year
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starting track i think it was i don't know if all of us it was all our first years but i wasn't really
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aware that that was a boy and so i met him at like our all county band or something and i talked to him
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i i did not i had no clue not a clue that that was a boy and so i was talking to him at that track meet
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and then people were telling me that's a boy and i was like i was just kind of like taken back like
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i was like why is this allowed to happen like there's no way and then just he kept improving
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and into this year we've had the idea to step out and so i talked to all of them and we did it and
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here we are so you guys had your shot put you got into the ring acted like you were going to thrill
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but then decided to step out of the ring i was so shocked to see the action that the school took
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after you decided to do this because it wasn't it wasn't to to ban the boy from competing with you guys
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they decided that they would ban the girls from competing in girls sports uh you girls who decided
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to do this faced repercussions and were barred uh not allowed to participate in some of the future
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competitions uh what in the world how did this come about do you guys know if he was taking any sort
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of hormone replacement therapy or anything like that he was taking hormone blockers there for
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a while i think since he was in like second or third grade i believe wow well the crazy thing is
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uh and this is what blew my mind is the state of west virginia already had a bill in place that
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would have prevented males from competing on girls teams and vice versa um but the aclu was suing the
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state of west virginia which ultimately put a halt on the bill uh specifically in the case of this this one
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male athlete um so i didn't know that this halt was in place and so when i found out that he was able to
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compete with you guys i was shocked i thought no way uh this is already you know this has already
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been prevented in west virginia there's there's great leadership there uh but that was certainly
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not the case and so um there was a big win by you guys actually who were able to um push back after
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some of the backlash that you got for ultimately stepping down um would one of you sabrina would you
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want to talk about uh the action that you guys took after you were retaliated against and what that
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looked like um so we knew that it was wrong that they like the coach had said stuff to us about it
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and so we went to court about it against our school and the board of education and stuff and basically
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set our peace with what happened at the meet and after the meet at practices and ultimately we
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they decided that it was best that we should have a rule in place instead of it being unwritten
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and then taking us out of the next meet for stepping out that's amazing that you guys were
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able to um push back in that way and ultimately again uh help so many other people besides just
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yourself you really set the standard and the precedent for for many girls to come uh what other kind of
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backlash did you guys receive from your coach from your school what did this look like for you
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that that that the public didn't get to see okay i'm gonna go first on this so i think it was like
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the day of the day after one of the girls sent me like screenshots of snapchat because i'm not on
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snapchat but becky basically was saying like she has more testosterone than me saying that like
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i look like a boy and like i wasn't even yeah and like i wasn't even hurt by that because that was
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just dumb to post that and where people can see and like it was just so insanely crazy so i wasn't
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hurt by it at all but like i have the screenshots if i need it now so thank you and then there was
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another thing we were at another meet and he was texting another teammate of his there's a screenshot
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on snapchat saying that he was surrounded by save women sports and he like felt violated or whatever
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it was like sending laughing emojis so i'm like there was like five of us like how are we surrounding him
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like the eighth grade meet there was um there was like these people um i think one of the boys
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walker told us that there was a lot of people wearing the same shirts like s2bws
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we didn't know so have you guys felt pretty overwhelmed by the support that you received
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since taking a stand i think it was way more than we expected i think we kind of gave a voice for
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those people that were scared and now they're not scared anymore so i'm excited about that like all
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the stuff that's being said about the assaults and all that like i'm i'm pumped like i'm like let's go
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well it's huge and again i think it shows how courage begets courage and there's certainly
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strength in numbers and speaking of the assaults and stuff this is again something that i had no idea
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that was happening it seems to be a common trend but i didn't know that this was something that you
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guys in the state of west virginia were facing we have now seen reports and other lawsuits and
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different things of some of the inappropriate comments that this boy has made to girls in locker
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rooms um and bathrooms and really just in general some of those things i mean very vulgar
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explicit things that i don't even feel comfortable saying as a 24 year old woman i wouldn't feel
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comfortable saying this and so what's your take on obviously we talk a lot about the unfair competition
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side of things um but this is a whole different problem of this i guess overarching topic that we
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spend our time talking about it's just insane to me like how can you let a guy go in the bathroom
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with the girls like after everything women's fought for over the past like it's insane and it's just
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honestly kind of laughable like what the heck the changing rooms like that's supposed to be a place
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where women can change and feel safe without men being around but then you let a man go in the hair
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like i was i was there for three years and i did not know like the first year i was there that that
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was a nail and when i figured it out i was like this is weird like just not be around me and one time
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actually i think it was me and i think it was you i think no it was seventh grade year and okay so um
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we were standing in line for concessions and he leaned his shoulder on us and we didn't know who
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he was and he came and he basically he got in line with us and at that time we didn't know that he
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wasn't a girl so we were like yeah it's okay but i think that that was like the first like interaction
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yeah the first interaction and then after that uh i met him at all county i realized that like he was
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a guy and it's just it's all it's kind of scary actually that he's allowed to be in the same
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bathrooms like people have now known what he's saying what he's doing how he's acting like what
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he said emmy is ridiculous and it should not be like other people are still saying like it's okay for
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him to do this it's okay for him to be able to go in the bathrooms but what about real women
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like we're scared but we have to let him feel okay because we don't want to be we're transphobic
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they're too worried about what the public will say about the trans people and not about our rights
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yeah real that's the common theme that we've seen right we hear all the time the words be kind
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be inclusive be compassionate other virtuous things that they say which in their true essence
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are great things who doesn't want to be kind who doesn't want to be respectful or compassionate or
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empathetic or or whatever they say but they've conflated the meaning of those words because it's
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not kind to anyone to ask young girls to undress next to a man that's not what kindness is
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and to point um they've totally sidelined women in a way to appease the feelings and the identity
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of a man at the expense of our own uh so i couldn't agree with you guys more um what about your school
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ultimate when ultimately when you took this this decisive action said we're not going to compete
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against this boy uh i mean what was the response of your school of your coaches a lot of like the
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coaches were like we agree with you but they didn't like make us feel like they agreed like
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they were like um we fully support you but i don't think what you're doing is like helping the team
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and like how was that help like how was that not helping the team we're helping the team realize
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that competing against the boys is wrong like everyone should know that at school a lot of people
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and some of the coaches they were like this isn't gonna do anything like you know that this isn't
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gonna do anything you can do that but that's just not gonna affect anything and now that this has blown
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up it's like obviously it did something like girls come to me at school saying you know this isn't
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gonna do anything all you're doing is hurting your team they're all gonna hate you now but then after
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it started blowing up they're like congratulations blah blah blah and like i was just like no you're not
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gonna say that and backlash me for doing right do you think it's because people are scared do you
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think people are fearful of at least your teammates you know your coaches other people um do you think
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they're scared of being called names or the risk that they face for standing for women like way too
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like scared i feel like they care more about like their social baddest than what's doing right
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i feel like we've been like here in the past couple years like i just we've been like so like i don't
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i i'm not trying to be mean or be transphobic i'm just trying to do what's right and i feel like lately
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we've been caring more about what trans people trans women want and making them comfortable
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but i feel like what about us and i feel like lately we've just been moved aside yeah
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i feel like that should be like a hashtag or something like hashtag what about us because it's
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it's so true it's a perfect way to kind of encapsulate what this movement is and and the
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severity and how it's really harming women um but the fear you know okay so what set what do you
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think set you girls apart we're missing one of you this is these are four of the brave girls uh but we
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are missing the another one of the five who stepped out but what do you think it is that sets you guys
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apart um you know what made you willing to do the right fair just moral thing despite the fear
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i mean a lot of the kids they just thought seeing it as winning the winning part of it
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and i want to do this for my kids for girls in the future for like i didn't care about the winning at
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that point because obviously that just wasn't what it what's about at the bottom line it's not about
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winning anymore it's about what's right and obviously the person who invented male bathrooms
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and girl bathrooms knew there was a difference so why are we just throwing that all away like it's
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just it's crazy like people are forgetting what like everything that's original and now everything's
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changing and they think that like it's just everything's meant to change everything's not
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meant to change some things are meant to stay the same so they think it's okay for it to just
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all basically rules for like bathrooms and stuff to change what about other schools after you guys
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drew attention to what was going on did you notice other schools um whether it was the school with
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the the boy on the team or other schools in your county or district uh what did you notice about those
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schools i noticed that um most of them were like talking about us like after we stepped out of the ring
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they were saying um why would they do that like they're just hurting their team and stuff like
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that and i'm like yeah a lot of schools from our district started started saying things about it
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saying that we shouldn't have done that and that we're just letting our teammates down
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and we pretty much just ignored them because we know what's right and we know what we're what
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we're doing is right what did your parents feel about the stand that you guys had taken
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100 it's just been the most support i think has come from all of us five and then our parents
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they've definitely chipped in a lot and just given us their support and that definitely helps us a lot
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i got to meet um most of your parents down in west virginia uh and your parents have done such a
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great job it takes strong parents to raise strong daughters uh but your parents certainly did those
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things which is um something i think we need to see more parents willing to do uh do you recommend
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the action that you guys took in conceding and and ultimately stepping down saying no we're not going
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to compete against this boy would you recommend that to other girls or women who face a similar
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situation definitely 100 because i feel like this is what it's gonna take just for everybody to
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refuse to compete because i mean i just think it's what's gonna work if everyone stops competing
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against them or like anyone that does the same thing as becky pecky jackson i just think that
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everyone should like take a stand to it like if if you do it then maybe um maybe they'll stop maybe
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they'll go back to where they came from i feel like if everyone steps out then it'll finally open
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everybody's eyes and realize that this is wrong and that something needs to change
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especially because there are people out there who's like this isn't happening like no one like
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they're like you're just being a bigot like it's not happening no one but the more we stand up the
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more that we can show people it is happening it is a bad thing happening all over it's happening in
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every state every level every division every sport uh we saw at the track and field championships
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the state championships in oregon and washington just this past week males who are are dominating
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other girls that's only happening one way right we we don't hardly ever see uh women entering into
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men's sports or men's bathrooms or men's prisons or any any single sex space that's entitled to
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a male so i totally agree with you how do you respond to
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the people who say well you guys are just being transphobic or you're just being anti-trans or or
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bigots honestly it's just i learned to ignore it for one because obviously i mean even though i don't
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agree with like all of that jazz um i still love those people and i don't want to hurt their feelings
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in any way and that's why we did this in such a respectful manner and that when people call us
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disrespectful too i'm like we could have yelled stuff like we silently did it in our own way
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posters that said go get away from here or anything like that the only thing we did to like
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involve like to say what we're saying is the shirts and that's it and technically that wasn't even
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targeting the individual it was just showing like i don't think that we're transphobic for standing up
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for what's right and if that's what they're going to call us then it's just small-minded people
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not to hear about the the well-being of women yeah at the last track meet we had he the we the other
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girl that stepped out with us mckenna she was wearing a shirt that was supporting us like what
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we usually have on and then becky and his other teammates were like pointing at her saying stuff
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yelling stuff like just being upright disrespectful and rude and laughing and we're just like okay
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whatever it's it's going to be his fault one day whenever he gets blamed for it and he's just not
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taking the right approach of how to deal with it instead of yelling he could be silently and doing
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stuff about it instead of screaming at his teammates and making causing a scene while a sport event is
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happening i just right and i think us that just makes him look like the back guy totally and then
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to go on social media and make comments about your physical appearance or or other things that are
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totally unrelated to what you guys are talking about never once have you guys said anything bad
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about becky the male never once have you said anything derogatory about people who identify as trans
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no you are merely advocating for the bare minimum you want safety in your sports you want privacy in
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your locker rooms and you want fair competition equal opportunity the bare minimum i cannot believe that
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that has become controversial to say i cannot believe that um people can somehow find a way to
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vilify or demonize you guys for saint but like i said i'm so proud of you i know so many others
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who were inspired by your courage it's your courage who gave um a woman playing in the in the dart
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world championship i believe uh the courage to step down same thing with billiards eight ball pool um it's
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you guys 13 14 year old girls who inspired those women to take a stand and say no um so i couldn't be
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more proud of you it's a sad sad day when you guys have to be the adults in the room um but it is
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incredibly commendable and i think your courage will live on for decades so i'm so appreciative of you
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guys and i'm very grateful you're able to come on and share more in depth um the experience that you
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guys had and continue to have as you stand for what's right thanks for tuning in to the games for
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girls podcast i hope you enjoyed this conversation with emmy with sabrina katrina and alana as i said
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that's only four of the five we are missing mckenna but nonetheless so proud of and inspired by these
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girls i would be remiss if i did not take a second to thank the attorney general of west virginia
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patrick morrissey who's now on his way to being the governor of west virginia but he when he heard
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about this happening in his state he immediately took action uh he is fighting back in the courts he
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held a press conference for these girls uh really championed them and showed them the support that they
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needed so thank you to ag morrissey he's really been a leader for the past 10 years on the gender
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ideology movement and pushing back there so thank you to him uh make sure you check us out at outkick.com
00:23:48.260
like and subscribe anywhere where you get your podcasts i've got exciting news my book i cannot
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believe it my book is now officially out it is called swimming against the current fighting for
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common sense in a world that's lost its mind i hope you check out the book of course it's a more
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in-depth detailed account to how we got here what we faced as division one swimmers at that national
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championship meet uh the trajectory of where we're going what the ncaa is doing what the ioc is doing
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what each each state is doing um the list goes on so make sure you check that out you can check it out
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on amazon anywhere where you get your books um but thank you guys again for tuning in and we will see