Our Bodies, Our Sports Summer Bus Tour in
Washington DC to Expose Biden's
Illegal Title IX Regulations, Harm to Women and Girls
MEDIA RSVP TO
PRESS@OURBODIESOURSPORTS.COM
Washington,
DC
The Bullpen
1201 Half St SE
Washington, DC 20003
Tuesday, June 25
Doors Open:
5:30 pm
Program: 6:00 pm
WASHINGTON, June 24,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- On Tuesday, June 25, members of the media are
invited to attend and cover the Our Bodies, Our
Sports "Take Back Title IX" Summer 2024 Bus
Tour rally in Washington, DC
at The Bullpen. This rally-style event will feature current and
former athletes, coaches, and prominent women's advocates,
including Martina Navratilova, one of the greatest tennis
players of all time, Donna de
Varona, swimming Olympic Champion and Emmy award-winning
sports broadcaster, Riley
Gaines, 12x All-American NCAA swimmer, and
Jennifer Sey, former
USA champion gymnast. The program
includes music by Nashville's Alexis
Wilkins.
The rally is hosted by Our Bodies, Our Sports, the
nation's first and only coalition of women's advocacy organizations
from across the political spectrum banding together to save women's
sports. Formed in 2022, Our Bodies, Our Sports has been on
the frontlines fighting against those who threaten women-only
spaces and opportunities. The coalition is responsible for the rise
of the largest, most ideologically diverse, women's movement of our
time.
Our Bodies, Our Sports has been traveling the country
since May 29 for its coast-to-coast
"Take Back Title IX" Summer 2024 Bus Tour. The tour visited a
different city every day since hitting the road to engage the
public and shed light on the consequences of the Biden
administration's new Title IX regulations, which are set to take
effect on August 1.
The new rules flip Title IX on its head — stripping all
sex-based protections in education, turning back the clock on
women's rights, and requiring schools to allow anyone who
self-identifies as a woman into women's spaces, opportunities, and
sports.
The rally will be held just days after overnight vandals defaced
nearly every inch of the "Take Back Title IX" bus following an
Our Bodies, Our Sports rally in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The event drew a
large crowd of supporters and featured remarks from a lineup of
female athletes and leading women's advocates, including former
UNC-Chapel Hill Women's Basketball Coach Sylvia Hatchell, who are touring the country to
help protect equal athletic opportunity for women and girls.
Photos and videos of bus tour events and
stops throughout the country HERE. [Credit: Independent
Women's Forum.]
At the Washington, DC rally,
Our Bodies Our Sports will unveil two open letters – one to
the Biden administration and the other to leaders in Congress. The
letters will be on display at the rally for attendees to sign to
showcase the widespread support to protect women's sports and stop
the illegal rewrite of Title IX.
The letter can be viewed HERE.
EVENT DETAILS:
WHAT: Our Bodies, Our Sports "Take Back Title
IX" Summer 2024 Bus Tour Rally in Washington, DC
WHY: Our Bodies, Our Sports is hitting the
road from coast to coast this summer, activating supporters across
the country to take back Title IX and stand up for women's sports.
New regulations put out by the Biden administration violate Title
IX, the statute they claim to enforce, by requiring schools to open
up women's spaces to males.
WHO: The Our Bodies, Our Sports coalition formed
in 2022 to defend women's sports and the integrity of the female
sporting category. Our Bodies, Our Sports is the nation's
first and only coalition of women's advocacy organizations from
across the political spectrum fighting for equal opportunity and
fairness in women's sports.
This event is open to the public. Current and former student
athletes and teams of all ages, parents, families, coaches, and
other interested parties are encouraged to attend.
Music performance by Nashville's Alexis Wilkins.
SPEAKERS TO INCLUDE:
- Martina Navratilova, OLY, one of the greatest tennis
players of all time, founding member of the Women's Sports Policy
Working Group
- Riley Gaines, 12x
All-American swimmer, 5x SEC Champion and record holder,
Independent Women's Forum ambassador, host of "Gaines for Girls" on
OutKick, and plaintiff in Gaines et al. v. NCAA
- Donna de Varona, Olympic
Champion, Swimming, 17-year President of the Women's Sports
Foundation, Emmy Award Winning Sports Broadcaster, founding member,
Women's Sports Policy Working Group
- Nancy Hogshead J.D., OLY, 3x Olympic champion and silver
medalist, and CEO of Champion Women
- Coach Sylvia Hatchell,
former UNC CHapel Hill women's
basketball head coach, sixth all-time winningest coach in women's
college basketball, the only coach to win national championships at
three different levels – AIAW, NAIA, and NCAA
- Paula Scanlan, former
University of Pennsylvania swimmer and
teammate of Lia Thomas, and
Independent Women's Forum ambassador
- Payton McNabb, former
high school volleyball player who was severely injured by a male on
the women's volleyball court and Independent Women's Forum
ambassador
- Coach Kim Russell, former
head women's lacrosse coach at Oberlin
College and Independent Women's Forum ambassador
- Selina Soule, 4x track
and field National Qualifier forced out of regional championships
due to males taking women's spots
- Kara Dansky, president of
Women's Declaration International USA
- Coach Barbara Ehardt,
former 15-year career NCAA Division I women's basketball coach and
current member of the Idaho House of Representatives from the 33rd
district
- Macy Petty, former NCAA
volleyball player and Young Women
for America ambassador
- Cynthia Monteleone, Team
USA world champion track athlete
who competed against a male athlete at the World Championship
- Jennifer Sey, founder and
CEO of XX-XY Athletics, 7x member of the women's national artistic
gymnastics team, and 1986 U.S. Women's All-Around National Champion
gymnast
- Linnea Saltz, former NCAA
track and field athlete from Southern Utah
University who competed against June
Eastwood, the first transgender-identifying male athlete to
compete in DI cross country
- Margot Heffernan, Women's
Liberation Front (WoLF) vice president
- Kaitlynn Wheeler, former
University of Kentucky DI swimmer
- Irene Lawrence, public
action coordinator for Women's Declaration International
USA
- May Mailman, director of
Independent Women's Law Center
**Mult-box will be
provided.**
**There will be opportunities for media pull
asides.**
Please direct all RSVPs and media inquiries to
press@ourbodiesoursports.com. Press credentials provided on
location.
BACKGROUND:
TAKE BACK TITLE IX SUMMER 2024 BUS TOUR
The tour, throughout the month of June has been traveling coast
to coast, kicking off with two events in Pennsylvania, events in Whitefish, Montana; Salt Lake City, Utah; Las Vegas, Nevada; Scottsdale, Arizona; Columbus, Ohio; Charleston, West Virginia; and Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The grand finale
events take place this week during National Women's Sports Week
includes rallies in Washington DC; Virginia Beach, Virginia; and Nashville, Tennessee.
OUR BODIES, OUR SPORTS COALITION
The "Take Back Title IX" Bus Tour builds on the momentum the
Our Bodies, Our Sports coalition has built over the past two
years standing up for women and girls — creating the largest, most
ideologically diverse women's movement of our time.
The Our Bodies, Our Sports coalition formed in 2022 to
defend women's sports and the integrity of the female sporting
category. Despite political and ideological differences,
members of the coalition stand together with gratitude for the
generations of female athletes who came before us and in defense of
all the women and girls who will come next.
Coalition members include Independent Women's Forum (IWF),
Women's Liberation Front (WoLF), Champion Women, Women's Sports
Policy Working Group, International Consortium on Female Sports
(ICFS), Independent Council on Women's Sports (ICONS), the US
chapter of Women's Declaration International (WDI USA), Concerned Women for America (CWA),
Young Women for America, Independent
Women's Voice (IWV), Independent Women's Law Center (IWLC), and
Independent Women's Network (IWN).
Our Bodies, Our Sports believes that taking
opportunities from women and giving them to men doesn't enforce
Title IX, it violates it.
NATIONAL WOMEN'S SPORTS WEEK [June 23
- 29]
The final stretch of the "Take Back Title IX" bus tour takes
place during National Women's Sports Week. In 2022, Independent
Women's Forum, together with its grassroots membership arm
Independent Women's Network, registered an official National
Women's Sports Week observed annually during the week of
June 23 to recognize female athletes
— past, present, and future — for their athletic participation and
achievement in sport.
National Women's Sports Week coincides with the anniversary of
Title IX, which transformed sports by guaranteeing women and girls
the right to equal athletic opportunity.
Last year, Congresswoman Claudia
Tenney and Senator Joni Ernst
introduced a bicameral resolution to designate the week including
June 23, 2023, as National Women's
Sports Week.
Click HERE to see all stops on the tour.
www.ourbodiesoursports.com
www.iwf.org
Independent Women's Forum is dedicated to
developing and advancing policies that aren't just well intended
but actually enhance people's freedom, choices, and
opportunities.
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SOURCE Independent Women's Forum