Women’s rights — and the very concept of womanhood — are under assault as never before in history.
It’s not just female athletes like me who are being told to step aside on awards podiums and who are being forced to give up their slots on NCAA teams. Female inmates are being put at risk in prisons. Sexual assault survivors are being told not to complain about having men undress next to them in locker rooms. Men are invading female sororities, domestic violence shelters, and educational training programs that were created specifically to encourage women’s engagement.
That’s what I want to talk to Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham about next week.
I am coming to New Mexico, and will be joined by other strong women who are standing up to preserve women’s opportunities and private spaces. We will be there to thank House Rep. Andrea Reeb for introducing the Independent Women’s Voice’s Women’s Bill of Rights in the New Mexico House of Representatives.
The Women’s Bill of Rights — House Bill 205 — defines words like “woman” and “female” so when it comes to laws that use these words, we are all speaking a common language. The bill also declares the state’s important interest in preserving female-only spaces and opportunities.
I know that Gov. Lujan Grisham has spoken about the importance of elevating women and taking violence against women seriously. I want to ask her, does she think that it’s fair that female boxers will now have to face male boxers in the ring? Is she aware of the hard scientific data, like that outlined in the Competition Report, showing that a human being who goes through male puberty, when testosterone levels rise by about 20 times, enjoys an irreversible advantage in strength and athletic power?
Taking testosterone suppressors later in life doesn’t change that reality. Data shows that men have physical advantages — not just in terms of strength and speed but in lung capacity and how their hearts process blood — that are hard-wired in their bodies. This is why there are women’s leagues and competitions in the first place.
I’d like to tell Gov. Lujan Grisham about my friend Payton McNabb who, as a junior in high school, had to face a male volleyball player. He spiked the ball in her face so hard that she had a serious concussion and brain injury. She now, more than two years later, still has partial paralysis and learning challenges that led her to drop out of college.
Is Gov. Lujan Grisham concerned about how the increased risks of this type of permanent physical injury might discourage young women and girls from competing? Does she think it’s fair that men are taking women’s slots and scholarships?
Gov. Lujan Grisham should also hear from Prisha Mosley, who is joining me in New Mexico. Prisha is one of the bravest women I’ve ever met. She struggled with mental health issues as a teenager and was encouraged to take drugs and have surgeries meant to make her look like a man. She now deeply regrets these decisions and faces lifelong physical challenges from the medical decisions that she made as a troubled teen.
The media doesn’t talk much about the experiences of detransitioners like Prisha, but it’s important for policymakers to realize how gender ideology and the drugs and surgeries that are sold as “gender-affirming care” can have devastating, permanent physical consequences.
The governor signed House Bill 7 into law on March 16, 2023, which will mean more troubled teens like Prisha will be fast-tracked and put on a medicalized treatment path, and it opens the door for public entities to be fined $5,000-plus if they refuse to do so. Is she worried that she’ll be hearing from more young women about lasting physical complications and regret
Amie Ichikawa also wants to warn the governor about what she saw when she was incarcerated in a female prison, when men were being moved into their facilities. Amie warns that the interests of female inmates, many of whom have themselves experienced sexual trauma and are working to heal so they can return to society as productive citizens, are being pushed aside in the interest of men who want access to women and women’s facilities.
I wrote to Gov. Lujan Grisham asking if she would meet with all of us when we are in New Mexico to share our experiences and encourage her to consider how to ensure that New Mexican women will be able to compete and win in sports, to protect women inmates from violence from male prisoners, and to prevent female sexual assault victims from having to relive their trauma in domestic violence shelters or in women’s locker rooms in her state.
Gov. Lujan Grisham’s staff said she didn’t have time to meet with us. That seems a real shame. Women’s rights should be a priority.
That’s the question that New Mexican women should be asking the governor. Are they?