WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, just two days ahead of the 52nd anniversary of Title IX, Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) announced vandals defaced nearly every inch of the “Take Back Title IX” tour bus overnight following an Our Bodies, Our Sports coalition “Take Back Title IX” Summer 2024 Bus Tour 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 and stop the Biden administration’s illegal Title IX regulations from taking effect on August 1.
Since May 29, the Our Bodies, Our Sports coalition has been traveling the country sounding the alarm on consequences of the new Title IX regulations. The new regulations strip away all sex-based protections in education, undermine women’s rights, and require schools to allow males to self-identify into women’s spaces, including athletics.
The bus vandalism incident comes just days before the bus is due to arrive in Washington, D.C. to start its fifth and final week of events to celebrate the 52nd anniversary of Title IX and National Women’s Sports Week, which runs from Sunday, June 23 through Saturday, June 29.
Independent Women’s Forum created National Women’s Sports Week in 2022. The week celebrates the incredible expansion of opportunities for female athletes since the passage of Title IX in 1972 and recognizes the role of Title IX in guaranteeing equal athletic opportunities for women and men. The week also honors the coaches and parents who empower female athletes.
Sunday, June 23, marks the 52nd anniversary of Title IX. It also marks the last anniversary of the landmark sex equality law as we have always known it. The Biden administration’s Title IX rewrite is set to take effect on August 1.
IWF confirmed the vandals’ messages on the bus — “F*ck Transphobia,” “Transphobic P*ssies,” and “Hate Group” — will be wiped clean before its next public stop.
HERE is our X thread with additional photos and videos of the vandalism.
HERE is the Google drive folder with photos and videos of the vandalism.
HERE is the Google drive folder with photos and videos of the bus tour.
“It’s disgusting but not surprising to see such a blatant anti-woman attack on a tour bus — our home on the road — that represents a national movement fighting to preserve equal opportunity, fairness, and safety for women in athletics. The Title IX rewrite from the Biden administration is in itself just that—an attack on women. We are disheartened but will continue to stand strong and share this important message across the country: women will not be replaced or sidelined. The Our Bodies, Our Sports Coalition has been working to save women’s sports since 2021, and we aren’t slowing down anytime soon. This cowardice attack will only make us stronger and louder as we continue to roll into Washington D.C. to amplify our message to the administration and Congress!” said Brianna Howard, Independent Women’s Forum coalition manager and Our Bodies Our Sports “Take Back Title IX” Bus Tour manager.
“It’s amazing that females wanting female-only sports warrants such a reaction. They’ve resorted to name-calling, defaming, and intentional misrepresentation when they can’t dissuade from our position. And now they’ve added violence and vandalism to their tactics. Common sense, logic, reason, lived experience, and science are on our side. Let’s be clear. The trans rights activists don’t want inclusion; they want the exclusion of women,” said Riley Gaines, 12x All American swimmer, 5x SEC Champion and record holder, Independent Women’s Forum ambassador, and host of “Gaines for Girls” on OutKick.
“I am looking forward to being in the nation’s capital during National Women’s Sports Week for the Our Bodies, Our Sports ‘Take Back Title IX’ Summer 2024 Bus Tour. I am heartbroken to see the photos of our bus after it was vandalized in Chapel Hill. But, we will never back down from our fight to protect women’s and girls’ sports and spaces,” said Paula Scanlan, former University of Pennsylvania swimmer and Independent Women’s Forum ambassador.
“Women’s sports give young athletes the self-esteem, focus, and teamwork needed to succeed in the world beyond athletics. Those of us who have benefitted from single-sex competition and camaraderie owe the next generation the same opportunities,” said May Mailman, director of Independent Women’s Law Center.
“As we celebrate National Women’s Sports Week, it’s crazy that we are fighting to take back the rights that were given to women in 1972 – 52 years ago. Women and girls deserve single sex sports as well as single sex locker rooms. I urge everyone to speak up and to remember what we are fighting for – the girls and women athletes of today as well as future generations!! The hate written on our bus won’t stop us – it only encourages us to keep up our fight,” said Coach Kim Russell, former Head Women’s Lacrosse Coach at Oberlin College and Independent Women’s Forum ambassador.
“After speaking at our rally in Chapel Hill on Thursday, my heart sank reading the hateful comments written on our bus by vandals. As someone living with the consequences of allowing a biological man to play in women’s sports, I know firsthand how important it is to protect women’s and girls’ sports and spaces. We must continue to sound the alarm on the Biden administration’s new Title IX regulations,” said Payton McNabb, Independent Women’s Forum ambassador and volleyball player who was severely injured by a male on a women’s team.
“In the last couple years, I’ve been going around trying to get former coaches and athletes and athletic directors to join in with me in this fight. It just really disappoints me whenever I call a former coach and he says, ‘Well, I don’t want to get involved.’ Well, let me tell you what, if you don’t get involved, then there’s going to be a lot of young little girls that aren’t going to have the opportunities that you have. So, I want to challenge you to get involved more,” said Coach Sylvia Hatchell, former UNC-Chapel Hill Basketball Coach, fifth most career wins in NCAA history, former USA Basketball Team Assistant and Head Coach.
BACKGROUND:
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. That was true before the Biden administration dropped its new Title IX rule, and it is still true today.
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.
Learn more about IWF’s work below:
- Our Bodies, Our Sports, the nation’s leading coalition of women’s advocacy organizations fighting for both fairness and equal opportunity in female sports, kicked off its coast-to-coast “Take Back Title IX” Summer 2024 Bus Tour on May 29.
- IWF and Independent Women’s Law Center have produced the second edition of its report entitled, “Competition Report: Title IX, Male-Bodied Athletes, and the Threat To Women’s Sports,” to help athletic associations, policymakers, and courts understand the growing threat to female athletes. Read HERE.
- IWF’s Female Athlete Storytelling Drive featuring real stories from real women athletes can be found HERE.