by Suzanne Bowdey
In years past, people might have missed the irony. But not now – not after the meteoric rise of women’s basketball.
When the WNBA champions visited White House last week, reporters did not cover it out of obligation. They pursued it because it was a true story. And the betrayal of President Joe Biden girls’ sports he just made it more than one thing.
The timing of the photo couldn’t have been more politically inconvenient for a president whose administration was like this lit up by lawsuits over dismantling the very thing the band was supposed to celebrate – women.
While Biden applauded the champions for “showing that the future of women’s sports is brighter than the lights in Vegas,” most people couldn’t facilitate but notice how completely disingenuous he was. After all, this is Biden trying to uproot 52 years of progress for women. He’s the one who insists that biological men make better girls than our daughters. And it was his idea – not Congress’ – to turn around Title IX in the manifesto transgender laws.
However, he stood on the podium with a straight face decided“What matters to girls and women is that they can finally be represented – and it matters to all of America.”
“That’s why,” Biden insisted, “as a nation, we must support women’s sports….” Not only during the championships he tweeted later. “But all year round. Let’s grow women’s sports and continue to inspire the nation.”
As a nation we need to support women’s sport by showing up in person and watching on TV – providing more sponsorship and programming.
Not only during the championships. But all year round.
Let’s develop women’s sports and continue to inspire the nation.
— President Biden (@POTUS) May 10, 2024
The reaction it was immediate. Three years into this administration, most parents, coaches and teachers understand exactly what the president wants to do with women’s sports – and it’s not about advancing them. This erases them.
“Here’s something @POTUS can do to support women” – Kristen Wagoner of Alliance Defending Freedom fired a shot: “…Keep men out of women’s sports.”
Here’s something @POTUS What could he do to support women instead of watching TV:
Keep men out of women’s sports. pic.twitter.com/FZ7FP4bELn
— Kristen Wagoner (@KWaggonerADF) May 10, 2024
Meg Kilgannon of the Family Research Council was equally outraged by the president’s hypocrisy. “President Biden wants to ‘grow’ women’s sports by allowing men who ‘identify’ with women to play sports. Forcing women to admit men into our locker rooms, sports teams and even prisons is NOT supporting women,” she argued. “Protecting women’s sport and female athletes would be truly inspiring for women and girls across the country, and for the men who love us.”
Former NCAA All-American Riley Gaines she was equally dismayed, saying on her “Gaines on Girls” podcast that “the easiest way to support women’s sports is to keep men out of sports.” And honestly, as the Independent Women’s Forum noted, it’s difficult to believe the “boldness” of Biden’s comments, considering he “just ordered girls to give up opportunities to play sports in favor of boys.”
Members of Congress, who had just been taking turns criticizing Education Secretary Miguel Cardona over the absurd Title IX overhaul, were terrified that Biden would try to exploit both sides of this debate, building on the damage he had already done. The rule issued by Biden’s team has already sparked a string of lawsuits in more than 20 states, a fact that has not gone unnoticed by the House Education Committee and the House Employment Committee.
Following the president’s false uproar about girls’ sports, Republicans tweeted: “Three weeks ago, the Biden admin finalized a sweeping #TitleIX change that would USE women’s sports by allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports. The guy who is doing the most damage to women’s sports should sit this one out.
During one of these interrogations, Cardona even refused to protect his own daughter passionate response from Rep. Burgess Owens, R-Utah. When Biden’s education director was unable to answer whether he would step in if his daughter didn’t feel comfortable dressing in front of her biological boy, the girls’ dad couldn’t believe his ears.
“I’ll say this, Mr. Secretary, before I move on to the next topic,” Owens paused. “With all due respect, I pray that our country will never, ever have the vision that your masculinity policies lead us to. It’s a vision that teaches our boys that hurting girls is no massive deal. I pray that we remain a country with an overwhelming majority of men who feel the same way I feel about my girls.
I would give my life in a heartbeat for my girls. And my blessing is that they have no doubts about it. There are millions of men and women across the country who don’t believe or trust you to protect our girls because of a no-yes-no-no policy.
By the way, these are not too arduous questions for a father.
He repeated that sentiment in an interview with Family Research Council President Tony Perkins on Saturday’s edition ofThis week on the hill” When asked why he criticized Cardona so harshly, Owens replied simply: “I have five girls and I grew up in an era where we were taught simply: [to be] a very proud teenage man, he has a good heritage, a good name, he will be ecstatic when all is said and done. Learn to love God, your homeland, your family. Respect women… especially motherhood and femininity. We all know that this is what makes our country what it is – how we think about our women and what they contribute to our culture.”
But these days, Owens noted, “we have an administration that doesn’t care about our ladies.” Equally frustrating, he said, is that they don’t care what their transgender program is doing to our sons. “Young men have no idea what it means to respect women. They have no idea what it means not to be tyrants. And they don’t mind hurting women in any way possible.
He explained that the reason he put Cardona in a arduous position is because leftists can in theory deal with the effects of this rule, “but when it comes to their children, they think completely differently. They use common sense. Well, no [being] unable to answer common sense questions about his daughter’s endangerment shows that the American people cannot trust him. He has to leave,” Owens insisted, adding:
He has to do something else. We cannot trust this guy to protect our children or educate them to defend our culture.
It’s all backwards, Owens argued. “The positive thing is that now we know what it’s all about. AND [the] Americans won’t stand for this.”
Last Friday, former President Donald Trump illustrated the stark difference between the two men’s policies when he did just that he vowed immediate rollback of Biden’s extreme modern Title IX.
“We’ll finish it on day one,” he promised.
– Don’t forget that this was an executive order. And we intend to change that.[…]Tell your people not to worry about it,” he said, calling Biden’s idea of letting boys into girls’ locker rooms “crazy.”
“It will be signed on day one,” Trump repeated. “It will be finished.”
– – –
Suzanne Bowdey is editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.
“WNBA Event at the White House” photo by Las Vegas Aces.
Editor’s note: A slightly modified version of this article was originally published at washingtonstand.com
