Roanoke College Women’s Swim Team Endorses Trump as He Pledges to End ‘Gender Insanity’
“Our experience was an emotional rollercoaster ride that I don’t want any girl to ever go through. … We felt unheard and unseen by the NCAA, our school, and lawmakers who told us that we had to deal with it ourselves.”
Prior to his transition, University of Pennsylvania swimmer William Thomas ranked 462nd in NCAA Division I men’s swimming, according to the Alliance Defending Freedom. Following his transition, Lia Thomas became a 2022 national champion in Division I women’s swimming. The furor over Thomas’s unfair and dishonest rise to the top thrust the controversy over transgender participation in women’s sports into the national spotlight.
Thomas’s instant success spawned copycats. In the fall of 2023, female swimmers at Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia, learned that a biological male, who had competed on the men’s swim team before spending 12 months undergoing testosterone suppression treatments (as the NCAA rules require), would be joining their team.
Women’s team captains Kate Pearson, Lily Mullens, and Bailey Gallagher told the New York Post at the time they had been “blindsided” by the news.
“We were all motivated to win this year after coming in second last year, and all that motivation disappeared when we discovered that a biological male would be joining the women’s team,” Mullens said.
Pearson noted, “We were told that even if our whole team stood against it and refused to compete, the swim coach would be able to compete with just that person on the team. They could just have a one-person team.”
She continued, “Our experience was an emotional rollercoaster ride that I don’t want any girl to ever go through with. We felt unheard and unseen by the NCAA, our school, and lawmakers who told us that we had to deal with it ourselves. I was stressed every day about what was happening, unable to fall asleep or finish my homework.”
The young women’s persistent efforts to oust the transgender athlete from their team ultimately succeeded. And, on Saturday, they endorsed former President Donald Trump at his Salem, Virginia, rally.
“The brave members of the swim team stood up to the transgender fanatics,” Trump told supporters. “We will of course keep men out of women’s sports, I promise. Last year, the radical left’s gender insanity arrived right here in Salem when a man was able to transfer onto the Roanoke College Women’s swim team.”
Seven members of the team appeared on stage clad in pink tee shirts that said, “Keep 🌭 [photo of hot dog] out of women’s sports.” Mullens spoke for the group. She took aim at Harris campaign surrogate, Mark Cuban, whose foolish remark that Trump never surrounds himself with strong, intelligent women, set off a media firestorm last week.
“We are so lucky to have a leader like Donald Trump with common sense who knows what a strong woman is and will fight for generations of girls to come,” she said.
BREAKING: The entire Roanoke College women's swimming team just got on stage at Trump's rally in Virginia to endorse him and crush Democrats for forcing them to compete with men.
Their shirts were HILARIOUS, saying, "KEEP🥒OUT OF WOMEN'S SPORTS."😂
"We are so lucky to have a… pic.twitter.com/gbrnA7QTPo
— George (@BehizyTweets) November 2, 2024
The endorsement from the Roanoke swim team provided Trump with a golden opportunity to voice his opposition to trans athletes’ participation in women’s sports. It also allowed him to hit back at Mark Cuban for his profoundly stupid remark.
Mark Cuban Insults half American women voters ⬇️
Will Kamala denounce his remarks? 5 days from the Election, this is a horrible strategy.
I worked for #Trump all 4 years in WH & saw him hire MANY STRONG INTELLIGENT WOMEN, including Latinas like me.
Comment below if you are… pic.twitter.com/Hx9SNoxjhq
— Jenny Korn (@JennySKorn) October 31, 2024
Members of the Boise State University women’s volleyball team are the latest athletes to stand up against competition with transgenders. OutKick reported that the team, “which forfeited its first match against San Jose State and transgender Blaire Fleming, has already informed SJSU that they will forfeit the November 21 match as well.”
Unless athletes, the coaches and administrations behind them, and lawmakers push back forcefully against this irrational new normal, women’s participation in sports will become a thing of the past.
We have a SIXTH forfeit by the volleyball women!! This is a second forfeit from Boise State! Way to go ladies!!
They are simply refusing to play.
No matter how often the gov demands men get into women’s sports, if the gals say no, there is no team.
Girl power!!! https://t.co/LsHjSW3a6l pic.twitter.com/UcWeiz93Ed
— Jennifer 🟥🔴🧙♀️🦉🐈⬛ 🦖 (@babybeginner) November 3, 2024
Transgender competition in women’s sports is said to be a “sleeper issue” of the 2024 election cycle and one that clearly favors the Republicans. Surveys show that the majority of Americans oppose it.
A 2023 Gallup poll found that 69% of Americans (up from 62% in a 2021 iteration of the survey), “say transgender athletes should only be allowed to compete on sports teams that conform with their birth gender. Likewise, fewer endorse transgender athletes being able to play on teams that match their current gender identity, 26%, down from 34% [in 2021].”
Elizabeth writes commentary for The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a member of the Editorial Board at The Sixteenth Council, a London think tank. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
DONATE
Donations tax deductible
to the full extent allowed by law.
Comments
Roanoke College is a small religious college of 1.700 students. Their web page indicates that they have an Equity and Inclusion seminar set for this November 7.
“While Roanoke College is the second-oldest Lutheran college in the nation, we’re never sectarian in our outlook, welcoming students of all faiths and creeds. From our Lutheran heritage, we believe strongly that critical thinking and spiritual growth are both required for you to flourish and to live a life of meaning after graduation. We encourage you to follow your own personal spiritual path while here at Roanoke.
Office of the Chaplain”
Most private colleges were founded by religious institutions… This one does not promote the religion of their founders and in fact, has a Catholic Student ministry, a Jewish Hillel group along with various other religious-based student groups. I’m not really sure what you’re point is.
Care to discuss the actual issue at hand (transgender athletes’ participation in college sports) or are you just here to get ratio’ed again?
You are BY FAR the dumbest poster ever seen here.
How many? What does that seven tenths of a student look like?
Dunce. You beclown yourself again.
.
The reliable obtuseness and infantile nature of your “insights” never cease to amaze.
So, JR – what is your personal stance on Transgender men in Women’s sports?
‘
He likes it. It’s the only way he can get girls to play with him.
It’s time for the NCAA to die.
I’m waiting for a good high-school male pole vaulter (record is 19’10”) to “identify” as a girl. He’ll set a record that real girls could never hope to achieve (record is 15’1.5″), four feet higher than the girls.
The women’s pole vault world record is 16’7″, which many high-school boys have beaten. That’s one sport where the women would just have to give up and get out.
One of many. I don’t understand how anyone can even remotely think this is fair.
It’s sad, according to the Gallup poll, that 26% favor boys and young men in girls’ and women’s bathing suits or other sports gear competing with and against young women athletes. Hurrah to the 69% who seek fair treatment for girls and women – in the locker rooms, gyms, practices and competitions; they are the good and decent folks among us who. And SHAME on the NCAA!