Wrestling with Gender Identity in Women's Sports
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Summary
Brandy Meeks is an activist in her own right, defending the lives of the unborn and the pro-life community. She is also a mother, and her daughter was faced with a scenario that required her to take a firm stance on a controversial issue.
Transcript
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hey everybody welcome back to the gains for girls podcast when you think of the gender ideology
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movement and how it affects sports you probably think of someone like leah thomas right like a
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very mediocre man uh swimming on the men's team who ultimately decides to switch to the women's
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team to become a record smasher uh and understandably so you probably think of this
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because we have thousands of examples of virtually the same scenario uh every sport every level every
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division every state this is happening but what you probably don't think of is how this adversely
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affects women in a totally different scenario um today's guest she is an activist in her own right
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uh defending the lives of the unborn but more importantly she's a mother uh her daughter was
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faced with a scenario which i am so excited for you guys to hear about today uh so make sure you stay
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and watch the podcast with brandy meeks well brandy thank you so much for joining the gains for girls
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podcast uh we got connected a few weeks ago about an issue that i'm super excited to talk with you
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about today um this is of course an issue that's required you to take a firm stance uh but this is
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nothing new to you so before we get into to all that i want you to be able to share a little bit
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about your background as an activist in a totally different realm okay all right so it it is related
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in some ways right but also um just very much complimentary so i am the president of an organization
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named vitae foundation and we focus on research about life-saving issues we do emotional research
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specifically and then we take those findings to create messaging strategies and share those with
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other um people within our circles of influence and also the pro-life community because we want
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to defend life um and we believe that we have to love people enough to tell them the truth
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specifically about abortion and so that is primarily the work that i'm in on a day-to-day basis
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and um and have also had the privilege of being able to step out into some other um activism work
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as well recently you're traveling you're all over the place you understand um the toll that just that
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alone the travel takes on you um but you're right in saying you know i i kind of preface by saying these
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are two totally different realms but you're right in saying they really are similar i think a lot of
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these cultural issues that we're really seeing um they do overlap in a lot of different ways um but as
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i mentioned you've been faced with this new issue of course the gender ideology movement and all of its
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adverse effects um but but really in a different way than most people think when they think about
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this issue especially as it pertains to sports and so i would love if you could give a little background
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as to as to what i'm referring to here absolutely so first of all i want to state and i know you feel
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the same way i love all people right that's why i that's why i do the work that i do day in and day
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out is because i want equality for all people i love equality i love equality for all people and
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that includes our young women that are participating in sports and so recently um i had something come
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across my radar and honestly um i didn't really want to do it right i didn't really want to step into
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it because like you shared i already had so much going on um in my day-to-day life and i have a
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couple places that i can escape to to not have to be on for those things and have a little bit of um
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just a little bit of privacy and that's usually like in the gym working out and then also um getting
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to watch my kiddos wrestle um and that was something that that we encountered um about a month ago as we
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were entering entering into the state wrestling tournament my daughter qualified for the state
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wrestling tournament it's actually i believe the fifth year in a row that we've had someone from
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our family that had qualified for the state wrestling tournament and the weekend before
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i received um a message from a friend who said hey um i'm actually probably one of the most liberal
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friends that you have right on social but i want to give you a heads up about a situation because it
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might affect your daughter and i it immediately kind of gave me pause right like what what are we
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talking about here um and as i looked into it i could see that there was a school that was in the
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st louis missouri area that was bragging on the fact that there was they called him they called the
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student a he um but that he had recently won the girls district wrestling tournament and i'm like
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that's odd and as i looked into it further this student was in my daughter's weight class in her
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bracket and was set to wrestle my daughter if she made it through her first round my daughter and
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if the student made it through their first round so there was a high possibility the student um was
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i believe 53 and 4 on the year up until this point and why that matters is that that's a pretty
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impressive wrestling record right and so it's pretty good chance that the student was going to make it
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through my daughter did make it through as well um and and then this is where this is where you know
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it got a little bit messy because we were trying to understand is this student wrestling their biological
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gender what is the situation and so as i began digging into it a little bit further this was an 18 year
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old biological woman who is transitioning to be an 18 year old man and while we're not looking at
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medical records the important thing to keep in mind is that this means there's a possibility of taking
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testosterone hormone therapy which essentially are performance enhancing drugs okay so this is where the
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caution starts to come in to think like this could be a problem and then additionally while we're not
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looking at the student's medical records the student is bragging to other young women that is uh that are in
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the wrestling circles that the student is taking testosterone to transition so we have that um and then additionally
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if you look at progressive pictures of the student you would be inclined to think that they are taking
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testosterone here is where the problem ensues right this is where we have we've exposed a loophole along
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the way and now we've got to close the loophole when you're looking at this this is much different
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than what you would typically think of right you we in your case right you have somebody who is is posing
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as a woman that is competing against women with an unfair advantage because it is a man in this situation
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this is a biological woman who maybe seems to be taking performance enhancing drugs to be a man
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that is still competing against their biological gender right and so that's where we start to have
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um start to have issues with that again of course i didn't want to tackle the issue if i'm being
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transparent but when it steps into this situation it's it's like we can't we can't turn our heads from
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and i asked my daughter i asked her i said what do you want to do right because again like this is the
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one place that we can kind of check out and and just compete and she said mom we have to do something
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you you know people that can help us do something and so that's that's where we are that's where we are
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today well i commend you for of course bringing this issue to light because like mentioned uh we don't
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tend to think of it this way but virtually what we're seeing across the board in every state every sport
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every level every division it's that women are getting the short end of the stick in every
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scenario um males who are self-identifying as women of course compete with the women but females who
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self-identify as men also compete with the women and i don't think a lot of people realize this but
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this is something i explained to you um kind of before of course joining the podcast but at that
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national championships where of course we competed against leah thomas again a six foot four male who
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identified as a woman who we were told we fully had to treat as a woman at the same national
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championships we had another athlete who was transitioning but this athlete is a female who
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began to self-identify as a man who we were told we fully had to treat as a man um izzy now goes by the name
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of isaac uh swam for for yale uh ended up placing fifth in the nation in the hundred freestyle which
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let me just for for perspective here for optics purposes okay it's the finals of the hundred
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freestyle top eight swimmers in the entire country um and you've got again a six foot four man in a
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women's swimsuit with a bulge next to a woman wearing only a speedo with nothing covering
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her top had clearly undergone um had a double mastectomy but nothing covering her top i'm
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sitting there watching this brandy and i'm like no it's me i'm the crazy one it literally must be this
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is the twilight zone um but anyways izzy now identifying as isaac ended up placing fifth in the
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nation in the hundred freestyle which is an incredible achievement to be top five in the
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country um now she is competing with the men at least her senior season she did finished dead last
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every single time uh got nowhere even remotely close to qualifying for men's ncaa championships um
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while being an all-american on the women's side uh not to mention in the olympics uh the canadian
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women's soccer team had an athlete by the name of quinn who identified as a boy competing on the
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women's olympic soccer team of course we can ask the rhetorical question of oh you know why is that
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but you and i both know the answer um it's because these these athletes as as proven would never and
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will never be able to compete at the same level against the men um but enough of that you mentioned
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a loophole um i imagine you're referring to missouri law uh so state law so were they prepared
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for this scenario because of course they have a piece of legislation in place um that ultimately
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protects sports on the basis of sex or so we thought um ultimately what this bill does is is
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really the main the meat of it is prevents men from entering into to women's sports um you guys are
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fortunate to have a wonderful attorney general um some really awesome leaders in your state
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but was missouri law prepared for this scenario i think so and i and i do want to commend them because
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they did a great job trying to protect our young women they truly did and and that's another thing
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like we're here right here in the state capitol where this is happening right and so very grateful for
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for um their attempt to do that but again you can't rationalize with irrational people and we're
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dealing with a very irrational population that um that are causing these issues so they didn't see
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this coming i mean it's really the first case of its kind when i was talking with attorneys around
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the country as we were looking at ways to be able to prevent this from happening when when we reached
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out to the state high school association to misha they their response was um is your are you
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is she afraid that her daughter is going to lose that was their compassionate response to us right
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they are instead protecting their situation right because they are saying that the state statute
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nullified their previous policy that they did have in place they had a policy in place up until this
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point that said if someone if a woman is transitioning to be a man and has has gone public with that that
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they are required to provide whether or not they are taking hormone therapy to do that okay it was
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never between a man and a doctor or a woman and a doctor at that point it was in the state handbook
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right now they are saying oh she afraid her daughter's going to lose for the record my daughter did not
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lose she beat the student eight to zero that is not a prideful thing that is me being grateful that my
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daughter stepped into this because a lot of people were telling us like hey pull out let's
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let's um you know let's uh forfeit this this match and i just couldn't do i couldn't do that for her
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dreams um this was not something she wanted to do she wanted to hit this head on and she did a great job
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her skill out um outperformed the muscle mass that was obviously in place with the other student but
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going back to the loophole what we're dealing with is the fact that you have to wrestle your
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biological gender okay that makes sense that's rational but for someone who is transitioning they
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no longer have to disclose to the state high school athletic association whether or not they
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are taking hormone therapy to do it that is the problem right that is the situation we're dealing with
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and i know that we're dealing with it here it might be the first of its kind but it will happen in
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other places that is why my daughter wanted us to take a stand that's why i'm doing this today
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we do have um senate bill um 1440 that is currently um has been sponsored by senator mary elizabeth coleman
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i would encourage you that if you were in missouri you have family that's in missouri anybody who has
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a pull in missouri to reach out to your legislators and tell them that you are in support of this anti-doping
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bill what this does is make sure that that again that we expose and close the loophole for young
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women in missouri this will allow um this will ban any kind of hormone therapy and allow for young
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women to be protected should someone decide that they want to become um want to transition to be a male
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and are born a biological woman and let me just state again this is not about the student that's not about
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the person this is about the policy that's in place to be able to protect our young women um
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college wrestling for for women is one of the fastest growing college sports right now and it's
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one of the fastest growing athletic scholarships for young women they will be robbed of these
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opportunities if we do not close this loophole that is why it's so important this is not a
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one-off situation this will continue to happen if we don't take a stand on this issue that's why it's
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so important so i just again i want to encourage everyone to make sure that they reach out to
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legislators and let them know how important this really is this is not just about uh anti-doping
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for performance enhancing drugs this is about closing a loophole that is much bigger than just
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not taking testosterone in order to maybe put on a little bit of muscle mass this is about keeping
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biological women from doing it in order to still compete in a biological woman's sport
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and you think to someone like lance armstrong i mean what do we call lance armstrong we called him a
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cheater is what we call them um and i love the point that you brought up um about your daughter
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winning people all the time they they misconstrue the argument here and they think oh well if this
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person's not winning does it really matter yes it matters it's about the message that it's sending to
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young girls we should be telling them that they're worthy of of sex based categories and that they're
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worthy to be called champions they're worthy of safety in their sports they're worthy of maintaining
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their dignity and and their feelings and identity being affirmed um rather than than having all of that
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kind of diminished to affirm the identity and feelings of a male and to your point this isn't
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you know this isn't us trying to say that this person um well as a christian myself um i don't
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necessarily support transitioning um from a biblical standpoint but i think adults should certainly be
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able to do what they want to do with with their their own bodies as long as you know it doesn't cost
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my taxpayer dollars and i'm not forced to necessarily and isn't hurting somebody else's body like uh the
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the unborn right exactly exactly um but every decision understand every decision has consequences
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uh and so if this athlete um wants to transition and wants to go down that route a consequence of
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that might be not playing in the sport category of your assigned sex your observed sex um so so yes
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um i think it's also the juxtaposition here again thinking about the ncaa they've banned celsius
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the energy drink uh because they say it's too much of a a performance enhancer celsius they said there's
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too much caffeine so i guess you know why do you think they're scared to do what they know to be
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right are you kidding me the ncaa um much broader than that the ioc uh even these these state laws that
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are in place uh they know of course that testosterone and other drugs like it are
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performance enhancing why do you think they're scared i think that they're scared because this
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doesn't give students a place to land that might be transitioning and like you said if you if you want
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to change your biological gender and um and participate in sports then you just that's just
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not an option right you have to wait until you've graduated from high school to make that decision if
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that's what you want to do and what you might find out there are a lot of people that regret that right
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doing that as a young person anyway and so you might find out that they don't want to do that after
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they turn 18 right after they are an adult and their brains are fully formed that might be the
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consequence i think that the that right now what we're seeing is again our world is upside down
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and people are clamoring just to try to make everyone feel seen and heard and they feel like
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this will give this will prevent them from having a place to land anymore because to play sports
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because they they have to participate in their biological gender and if they are to if they are
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transitioning then they wouldn't be able to participate well then that like you said that's a natural
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consequence right of of what they would choose and i think that's something we have to remember we
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shouldn't punish our young women like you said that i mean i i want them to feel safe and i want
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them to feel protected we fought for so long as women to have the opportunities that we have and we are
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just allowing them to be stripped away from us and also i want to say um i've had a lot of people reach
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out to me and say thank you so much for speaking up for our girls and that we need to really
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encourage more women to do that but i also have to say men we need you helping to protect us as well
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yes we have voices and i am grateful for people like like you riley and i am grateful to have the
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platform that i have and the abilities that i have been given and the network that we have but it is
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bigger than that we need men to feel comfortable and not feel like that they they don't have a voice in
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this they are dads they are uncles they are brothers they are coaches and we need you we need
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you to protect our girls as well not from a sexist standpoint of feeling like we need men to to to
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handle this for us no we need to work together to handle this and i just don't want men to feel like
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their voices have to be quieted because i've heard from a lot of male coaches that have thanked me for
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saying something because they feel uneasy about saying something in this situation and you know
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what many of them are probably scared for their jobs and that's wrong right we should be able to
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and we should be able to embrace our values and take a stand on this because again this is about
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protecting protecting our girls and and it's not just from this standpoint we're talking about these
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girls go into combat with each other right like it's not just like a track meet where you might run
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beside each other this is a matter of they are they're wrestling this is a full contact sport
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it is not safe right it's not just an unfair competitive advantage it is unsafe for students
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to be taking performance enhancing drugs against someone who's not and unknowingly so this is this
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is part of the issue as well and we need men to step up and women to and their voices be heard
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of course um parents that's your call to action um certainly i i could not agree more we need to see
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moms but we need to see dads i think that's been the piece that's that's really been missing we've
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seen a big push for moms running for school board and different things but it's due time um that both
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mothers and fathers are willing and coaches i mean you're right every leadership position should be
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defending these girls um kids in general because i mean they're desperate for it um one more time
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and that's our job right exactly our job exactly one more time can you plug the bill in missouri um
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to to garner awareness make sure um if you live in missouri make sure you are reaching out to your
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state senator your state representative um letting them know how you feel about it because again it's
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important um if you truly care about the safeguarding of of children and women sure it is senate bill 1440
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the way it reads it prohibits public and private elementary and secondary schools and institutions
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of post-secondary education from being members of any statewide athletic activities association
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that allows students to use performance enhancing drugs and just something to keep in mind again
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it's going to be labeled as an anti-doping bill people are going to maybe be confused about how that
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would connect to something transgender but now you know the story behind it and i think that's what
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we have to keep in mind right is it's not just about making sure some kids don't take some testosterone
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it is much bigger than that because again we've exposed a loophole now it's our responsibility to close
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that loophole that's how we can do this that's how we can work together to do this so please do not
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hesitate reaching out um to your representatives to um to our legislators to be able to hopefully get this passed
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amazing well we thank you for your stand on this and and all of the issues that you have taken a stand
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on um your voice and your platform are incredibly influential and desperately needed uh so we are
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grateful for you brandy and we will be following along uh following what sb uh 1440 is doing how it's
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tracking and what we can do to support it so thank you thank you thank you and thank you for your voice we
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are so grateful to have you and you are fiery girl i love it each time i'm inspired a little bit
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more to step out of my comfort zone and maybe be a little bit more fiery a little bit more like riley
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well you're sweet brandy so thank you if you are living in missouri make sure you reach out to your
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state senator your state representative and you are urging them to vote in support of this anti-doping bill
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sb 1440. uh thank you guys for tuning in we appreciate you make sure you like subscribe
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comment anywhere where you get your podcasts make sure to check us out at outkick.com and we will see