NEW YORK, NY — Today, Independent Women’s Forum is joined by a coalition of ideologically diverse national women’s organizations in standing behind Manhattan Mom and former Democratic candidate for office Maud Maron after she was abruptly banished from her elected position on New York City’s Community Education Council for District 2 — the cities largest parent council.
In February, Maron was quoted by the New York Post speaking out about antisemitism at her daughter’s high school. Chancellor David Banks claims the February quote was the reason she was booted from her elected seat on Friday, June 14.
A coalition of national women’s organizations from across the political aisle believe this was a fig leaf justification to oust a council member who is a champion for women — Maron knows what a woman is and has been a vocal voice in advancing protections for women, including prohibiting male athletes from participating in women’s sports.
What They Are Saying:
Carrie Lukas, Independent Women’s Forum President, said: “Maud Maron has been a voice for sanity for years now. She fought against unnecessary school closures and never-ending masking policies in the wake of COVID, and now is fighting for the radical idea that women and girls should actually have a league of their own for athletic competitions. Shame on New York’s so-called leadership for consistently putting the interests of kids and women and girls last.”
May Mailman, Independent Women’s Law Center Director, said, “Mayor Eric Adams is overseeing a school system, run by Chancellor David Banks, that devastates the core American value of debate. Maud has the true but ‘wrong’ opinion that women should be asked before giving up their sports to men, and that anonymous speech is cowardly. New York schools shut that down. We should all be fearful of this shockingly successful quest to rid certain, truthful, viewpoints from the public sphere.
Riley Gaines, Independent Women’s Forum Ambassador, said: “The witch hunt to remove Maud Maron from the New York City District 2 Community Education Council is outrageous and censorship at its finest. If it’s a crime to say that women are women, girls are girls and sports should have sex-segregrated opportunities then 70+% of Americans should be locked up. This is not a controversial belief. Shame on the New York City School Council and their dangerous and deeply disturbing disregard for women’s rights and equal opportunity.”
Kara Dansky, Women’s Declaration International (WDI) USA President, said: “The US chapter of Women’s Declaration International (WDI USA) is proud to stand with Maud and in support of Resolution 248, a perfectly sensible approach to ensuring that New York City policies are safe, fair, and effective. Democracy simply cannot survive if government policies are not subject to evaluation, and the only reason there is any pushback at all to Resolution 248 is that the topic relates to ‘gender identity’ — a topic our society has decided may not even be questioned. Removing Maud from the CEC is nothing other than a naked attempt to thwart democracy.”
Doreen Denny, Senior Advisor for Concerned Women for America, said: “Maud Maron’s removal is a fools crusade to silence truth-telling about biological reality. Her banishment from the school board is cowardly and pathetic. Maron is a champion for women’s rights, including our immutable design as female. She proves political persecution only strengthens resolve which is why the school board is trying to silence her. Concerned Women for America will never stop fighting for the status and dignity of women and we stand in solidarity with Maud.”
Nancy Hogshead, J.D., Olympic Champion in swimming, and founder/ CEO of Champion Women, providing legal advocacy for girls and women in sports, said: “Maud Moran’s statements are only ‘discriminatory’ if men’s perspective is centered; men who identify as transgender, gender fluid, or nonbinary, and women’s perspective is excluded. Maud hasn’t expressed animus or hostility towards anyone who doesn’t identify with their sex. Surely standing for women’s rights cannot be ‘forbidden.’ As a fellow Democrat, I stand with Maud. I encourage other Dems to do the same – to recognize, once again, that women’s rights are human rights.”
Sharon Byrne, Women’s Liberation Front Executive Director, said: “Every day, women who advocate for the rights of women and girls in America find their voices silenced in favor of those promoting an agenda that erodes our rights and leads to the erasure of women as a protected class. Maud Maron, as an elected official, advocated for common-sense policies to protect girls in NY schools. Maron was recently confronted by an oppressive group determined to drown women’s voices in a public meeting. Her removal is undemocratic and unjust.”
The Women’s Sports Policy Working Group, under the leadership Nancy Hogshead, said: “The Women’s Sports Policy Working Group, made up of long-time Democrats, supports Maud Moran’s First Amendment rights to speak on matters of public importance. Here, Maud was speaking about the importance of fair sport and exclusive access to our spaces, like changing rooms. We agree with her; people who do not align with their birth sex should be accommodated, but that our spaces are just for us. It is infuriating to have to expend resources to re-win battles we thought we’d won for women decades ago. We stand with Maud Moran.”
Kim Jones, Co-Founder of Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS), said: “The removal of elected board member Maud Maron from the CEC is a chilling statement on the current stifling of free speech by the ACLU and the Chancellor. ICONS stands with Maud in defending the rights of female students and free speech. Government policies must be openly debated, the public must be heard, and the conflict of ‘gender identity’ and women’s rights cannot be a censored topic. Public hearings should never be places of intolerance and intimidation and elected officials should not fear bringing forward necessary conversations.”
Maud Maron joined the above organizations for the first Our Bodies, Our Sports rally in Washington, DC on June 23, 2022. Our Bodies, Our Sports coalition, formed by 12 women’s advocacy organizations, is the nation’s first and only coalition of women’s groups from across the political spectrum working together to keep women’s sports female and take back and protect the landmark sex-equality law, Title IX.
Since then, Our Bodies, Our Sports coalition has held dozens of rallies, driven thousands of female athletes to send personalized emails to the NCAA, enlisted hundreds of top-level female athletes to sign coalition letters to policy makers and successfully prodded many governing bodies of sport to amend participation policies for women’s sports exclusively for women.