True Impact with Payton McNabb
Episode Stats
Summary
Peyton McNabb has been a fearless advocate for women s sports, of course, but the way in which she was thrust into this position is unfortunate to say the least it is traumatic. It s something that no girl or woman should ever have to face or experience. But Peyton McNabb was a high school senior playing volleyball when a boy on the opposing team posing as a woman jumped up spikes and hit Peyton in the face to where she was knocked unconscious.
Transcript
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hey everybody welcome back to the gains for girls podcast uh today's guest is and has been a fearless
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advocate for women's sports of course um but the way in which she was thrust into this position
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is unfortunate to say the least it is terrible it is traumatic it's something that no girl
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or woman or person should ever have to face or experience um but Peyton McNabb she was a high
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school senior playing volleyball when I'm sure you've seen the video a boy on the opposing team
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posing as a woman jumps up spikes the ball hits Peyton in the face to where she is knocked unconscious
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where she lays for for minutes before coming back around uh still dealing with these effects of this
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hit uh this brain injury still to this day and this happened in September of 2022 so nearly almost
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two years since the hit and she is still going to weekly doctor appointments um which again is just
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it's a terrible experience but she is using this terrible experience for the benefit of others
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um as I said she has been someone who has traveled the nation uh she is an ambassador for independent
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women's forum who has been really the leading group on these issues not limited to just women's
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sports uh but women's spaces developing the women's bill of rights uh working pretty closely with
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prisoners who are dealing with men and infiltrating into their all women's prison facilities uh so
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everyone should check out independent women's forum at iwf.org um but anyways I just love Peyton she's
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become a dear friend we have traveled to many states together um and she's doing incredible work
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and I think the best thing about Peyton is she's from Murphy North Carolina so she has this awesome
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accent um it makes me wish that I was from North Carolina uh but make sure you check out the
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interview with Peyton McNabb okay Peyton thank you so much for joining um over the past year or so
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you of course have been a wonderful advocate for keeping women's sports only for women uh but I think
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more importantly to me you have become a dear friend and someone who I just love and care about a whole lot
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uh we've done a lot of different things together in the different states across the country so
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you're just amazing and I appreciate you so much but I wanted you to start by telling us a little bit
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about your background um and how you got into playing sports okay so I'm from Murphy North Carolina
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I went to how I should am um since the beginning and uh my dad has always been very involved in the
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school he was the baseball coach when I was like born until a few years ago and he became the principal
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of my school and I'm just from a very community involved rural area um so we had to play all the
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sports for us to even have a team um so I played volleyball basketball and softball I was a year-round
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athlete in softball playing on travel teams in different states and uh
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yeah we were I was always in some kind of sport at every any time um so yeah that was a very big part
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of my life as well as everyone else in my family's so at that point you played so you say basketball
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volleyball softball flash forward to high school um you still played those sports um but I want to take it
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to your senior year where this is where I found out about you I think this is where the nation really found
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out about who you were because unfortunately you were impacted in playing volleyball in a way that
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unfortunately is becoming more and more common um but take us to that game your senior year
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where ultimately the trajectory of your life changed yeah so we went into this um game against
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highlands which um we all knew there was a boy on the team it was like kind of rumored but it was like
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pretty obvious also so everyone knew uh we didn't want to play them but we had no choice because they
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were in our conference so we were forced to by our uh North Carolina high school athletic association
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and um we go into this game and I just remember seeing like I was pretty scared playing against him
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um so was everyone else on my team we had a really young team and they had never seen him before he was
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the same age as me so I've seen him all four years um but during COVID that kind of like cut all of our
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sports and stuff in half so like we didn't really see each other that much and uh he didn't hit puberty
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until like usually when boys hit puberty so uh that's when it got worse or whatever um but I remember
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going into this game and seeing like the faces of all the younger girls on the team who had never
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had to play in before and they were literally shaking they were so scared and uh the whole week
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leading up to the game we had to practice differently to prepare to play against him
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because no one else hit the way he did in the whole conference that we went up against and I've talked to
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like different girls from different teams in the surrounding areas and they had to do the same thing
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their teams practice differently to prepare to play against this individual and which is completely
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ridiculous and like messes up the whole like your whole like uh plan for in general exactly strategy
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yeah so it was definitely um you know I didn't know we didn't really know what to do and like looking
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back this really wasn't like you didn't really talk about this issue as much as we do now so I feel like
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if it was now we just wouldn't have played but at the time we had no idea what to do like we come
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from an area that I never thought like this would happen we never thought we'd have to see this coming
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from where we come from because this just doesn't happen so yeah and I think it's important to mention
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too that and I didn't realize this but in volleyball a boy's net or a man's net is seven and a half
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inches higher than a woman's net so not only does this boy of course have biological advantages over
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you know you girls but also he's basically playing with a handicap and the fact that the net is so much
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lower than what every other guy has to play with um yeah so of course I mean it's almost as if they're
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acknowledging that biological advantages exist when they have a net that is that much higher um but
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anyways you're you go up against him of course you see him on the other side you guys are all just
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kind of like not sure what to do you're scared um take us through that video that now we have all seen
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which is incredibly unfortunate I imagine people watching this just like I did like I mean you can't
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help but put yourself in your shoes like you're watching this and you I mean you're in I'm in pain for
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you watching this so take us through that yeah so uh I was the setters and I wasn't tall enough to
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like reach the top of the net so I didn't block or anything and I usually always covered tips so I
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would go behind our tallest girl who was blocking who still couldn't even come close to the ball um
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so I was behind her like usual um and then once I got hit the impact was so hard that it knocked me
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unconscious for about 30 seconds and I was in a fencing position um so like my hands and legs were up or
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whatever and um I remember like in the video there's like a scream and then everything is so silent
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and no one knew what to do like the faces of my teammates and stuff like their hands were like
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over their face and they were just like terrified of what just happened and um my coach and like my
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athletic director and everyone like came around me and like was trying to like wake me up and my uh
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she's like my coach is trying to push my legs down because she doesn't know like what's happening to me
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and they just keep coming back up but like I'm not awake and then finally when I come to they uh
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they like help me up and then the other side's trainer asks me what happened and I was like well
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that boy on y'all's team just hit me in the face and I don't think he was like expecting that kind of
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answer because I don't think like you're allowed to talk about it or whatever uh but I can't help like
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what comes out of my mouth so I said that and he was just like oh okay and then carries me off the
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court um he does one like little finger test on me and then he said that was all good I can go back
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into play and luckily my coach and athletic director were like no like she's not going back in
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and thankfully so because I ended up going to the doctor and I had a concussion permanent whiplash
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and a brain bleed oh my god with a lot of other things that like follow that so yeah what was the
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response of the boy the boy's team and and the boy you know did he ever say sorry did he ever reach
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out did he ever try and apologize was there ever any communication from I guess the teammates or the
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boy and you yeah so while I was laying there uh the other team was actually laughing at me they were
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all like together in a group laughing and if you like keep watching like the rest of the video like
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a couple of the girls on my team who are also like my cousins so like I guess they know you're like
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pretty uh serious but they're like walking over there and saying like what are you laughing at like
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nothing's funny I don't know why y'all laughing and that just like made them laugh even more
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and uh after the game I was like walking thankfully that's the only game that my parents didn't come to
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all season uh I thank the lord for that because honestly I don't know like what would have happened
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but uh I was going to the bus and the coach and like um I think a parent or something came up to me
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and they were like uh is your nose okay like ask about my nose and I was like well yeah I didn't hit
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my nose it hit me right in the head and um they just like seemed to not really care about it like
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they just were trying to brush it off and make it like a non-issue and then the boy specifically
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hadn't said anything to me until um like right after the first time I spoke out he messaged me
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on Instagram and he was like I can't it was like something like rude like I think he said I was
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living rent free and he was living rent free in my head or something like I don't know so not
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apologizing basically no like you know you can't stop talking about me like yeah making it about him
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when like I mean in a way it's not really about him like no
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and this is a boy who even then went on to be recruited for women's college volleyball
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I don't know what happened there but I know he was being recruited based off of
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um videos and such that he was posting that I saw um which is asinine really um but you mentioned
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having your doctor's appointment take us through I guess kind of having talked to you obviously
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before and knowing some of the background of this you went to a doctor at first down in Georgia
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right but they weren't willing to see you once they found out how you got your injury is that true
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yeah yeah uh um I went to my primary doctor like as soon as I could and then she like immediately
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referred me to a neurologist and then I went they went through the whole like scans and all that stuff
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they explained to me what and all was wrong with me and then um they just were so confused on how this
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happened in a girl's high school volleyball game so then my mom finally was like well it wasn't a girl
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that hit her it was a boy so I they like didn't know what to do with that um and then they call back
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later and they're like she's all good like after they just told me like I wasn't all good and my mom
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was like what like she was like so upset and asking them like to explain why and they like ended up
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just hanging up on her oh my god like it was too controversial like I don't know and so you just had
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another appointment recently um the effects again having heard you testify in many different states
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like the effects of what you have gone through and continue to go through um in terms of you know
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being partially paralyzed um having vision impairment memory impairment you know accommodations for
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testing at school in high school because it's impossible to retain information in that way
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when you've suffered a brain injury um what does that kind of look like for you now
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um and as you move forward in the future uh yeah so school is definitely still a lot harder for me
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than it used to be um I'm still gonna I'm still having to get help in school unfortunately and uh
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like last semester it was so hard I didn't know if I would come back but I'm doing a lot better now
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and I'm trying a lot harder and I'm getting extra help so uh I'm trying in school and then like
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for my body and stuff my vision is still kind of off um so I like still have to wear my glasses and
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everything but my body is really what's still um like the worst like it's still in shock from what
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happened and things just still like aren't the same as they used to be so I'm having to have these
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doctor appointments like every week and uh it's definitely not um yeah it was almost you know two
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years ago at this point and I'm a college student who's having to pay like tuition and stuff and now
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I'm having on top of that doctor's appointments every week wow what do you think of when you see
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like of course these instances continue to happen um especially after we saw this past week we have
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democrats who are our leaders and that is certainly an air quote to really try and gaslight
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the american people um like jerry nadler and they say this this isn't happening or they say something
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to the effect of you know um you know be compassionate be empathetic what's your response
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to that um I want them to be compassionate to all the female athletes that are having to suffer
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because of this issue that isn't that is definitely happening and it's continuing to happen every day like
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you said I mean we're literally like hearing a new story about it every day and um it's a slap in the
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face to every female that has had to deal with this I mean the emotional trauma the physical trauma
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everything that follows that um it's I don't understand how it's still an issue and for them to like
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like we can see right through the delusion because obviously what they're saying is lies but it's sad
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that people like actually believe these people and what they're saying because it's not true and it's
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obvious because it's shown every day of course and and the thing is like I really do feel like
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majority of everyday people forget republican democrat like majority of people understand as
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unfortunately these things continue to happen they understand that our our leaders are lying to us
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um yeah to the protection of women and girls and olympic and amateur sports act um this week it was
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introduced by senator tommy tuberville all 51 democrat senators all 51 voted in opposition I mean do you
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think they believe it do you think they're fearful to step like out of line on this issue of course
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they are I mean they know I think every single person knows deep down whether they want to admit it or
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not that this is ridiculous and it's like we're living in the twilight zone because I I know they
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even know like this is so weird and so stupid so which is really sad because if you're going to be
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voted in such high like such a high position to be our leader then you should be able to have enough
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um guts to be able to stand up for what's right I totally agree um if our leaders can't find it
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within themselves to defend women we need new leaders um but like I mentioned in your intro like
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you have been an influential part um of course in your home state of North Carolina but really across
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the nation so um what have you been doing since this happened to you to protect women's sports
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yeah so I've been traveling a lot more than I had before and you had never been on an airplane
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so it's definitely been crazy like really out of my comfort zone but uh this is was not in my future
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plans at all and I think I love what you say all the time that the quickest way for God to laugh in your
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face and to make your own plans because that is so true um again not in my comfort zone at all but
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this is what the Lord's plan was for me so I'm just gonna keep pushing through to help as many people as
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I can for as long as I can and then just kind of see what happens yeah well it's amazing and your
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sisters and your cousins um and tons of girls across the nation really have you to thank um but in
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particular to North Carolina actually because I think North Carolina was an important state
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um one of the more recent ones in getting this bill done um and through have some awesome leaders
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there who carried this bill and championed this bill um which is amazing um but I wholeheartedly
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believe that this would not have been done in North Carolina had this not happened to you so while of
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course what happened to you should have never happened and is unfortunate and should never happen to
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anyone I really do think it was kind of like this catalyst in getting North Carolina to do the right
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thing of course ultimately Governor Cooper vetoed the bill um but they were able to override this veto
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with the majority vote um so I guess last question here is your message to Governor Cooper um I was super
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excited with the news in North Carolina of who won the Republican primary for Governor um I think Roy Cooper
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is a spineless morally bankrupt coward um so what's your message specifically to him yeah so um no one was
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shocked when he vetoed it because again he is a spineless man um but he has daughters so like that's
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he's like you he knows that this is wrong and again he just doesn't have enough courage
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to admit it because he's afraid of upsetting the you know whatever sod right and uh again which is like
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if you're not gonna have enough um I keep wanting to say some of the stuff if you don't have enough
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courage to step up for what's right then you shouldn't have a position and I'm very looking
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forward to for him to be out of the office woohoo me too um you're the best like I said you're fighting
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for so many uh which is why I know you fight um so it's amazing you're wonderful um and we love you
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so thank you for love you too you're the best thank you for having me I told you her accent was awesome
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I just love listening to her talk uh but like I said Peyton has been incredibly influential she has
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been someone who has really moved the needle on this topic as more and more girls unfortunately are
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becoming injured in their sports suffering uh season ending injuries oftentimes career ending
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injuries like Peyton's um again a terrible circumstance but Peyton is truly turning lemons
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into lemonade and for that I thank her I know that your daughters thank her if you're a female athlete
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yourself you thank her all of humanity really should be thanking her uh but thank you for tuning in
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make sure you like and subscribe anywhere where you get your podcasts and we will see you again next week