WASHINGTON, D.C. – Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) is thrilled to be a part of Newsmax’s new documentary, “Foul Play: Athletes Speak Out,” which features Independent Women’s Forum ambassadors Paula Scanlan and Coach Kim Russell. In addition to its ambassadors being featured, IWF also provided b-roll, video, and other elements for the documentary from IW Features’ productions, IWF’s original journalism and grassroots storytelling program, and IWF-led events and rallies to Keep Women’s Sports Female and Take Back Title IX.
The one-hour documentary, which airs on Sunday, November 17, at 9 p.m. ET, “investigates the growing trend of transgender individuals in women’s sports: the continued push, the criticism, and the consequences,” according to Newsmax.
Scanlan is a former University of Pennsylvania swimmer, where she was teammates with Lia Thomas, who infamously left the UPenn men’s swim team, started identifying as a woman, and then joined the UPenn women’s swim team for the 2022 season. Scanlan decided to use her voice for good, and take a stand for women’s sports and spaces after being forced to share a lockerroom with and change in front of Thomas up to 18 times per week. Learn more about Scanlan’s story HERE.
Russell was the head women’s lacrosse coach at Oberlin College when she shared a post on her personal Instagram account congratulating Emma Weyant, the female swimmer who lost her first-place podium spot to Lia Thomas at the 2022 NCAA Swim Championships. Because of her post, Russell was forced to partake in a series of disciplinary hearings before Oberlin administrators and her team, and was ultimately removed from her position as coach. Learn more about Russell’s story HERE.
Scanlan and Russell joined Newsmax’s “American Agenda” on Friday to discuss the documentary and the continued fight to stand with women and save women’s sports.
Watch the segment HERE.
Paula Scanlan, former teammate of Lia Thomas at the University of Pennsylvania and Independent Women’s Forum ambassador, said: “Newsmax’s new documentary, ‘Foul Play: Athletes Speak Out,’ is a pro-woman, pro-science film that highlights the need to have female-only sports and spaces. Every day at Independent Women’s Forum, we are fighting to ensure no other girl or woman has to experience what I did while swimming at the University of Pennsylvania. I hope everyone who watches the documentary is inspired to stand up for women’s rights and join our continued fight to save women’s sports and spaces!”
Brian and Cynthia Scanlan, Paula’s parents, who are also featured in the documentary, said: “We are so proud of Paula for taking a stand on women’s rights. All parents want to make sure that their child is safe everywhere, but especially in the locker room. So when her university changed the locker room rules, that was deeply upsetting. Wait, who decided that? There was no discussion. No discussion was allowed.”
Coach Kim Russell, former head women’s lacrosse coach at Oberlin College and Independent Women’s Forum ambassador, said: “Our fight for women in sports and private spaces will continue until there are ZERO males competing in women’s sports and invading women’s private spaces. One male competing affects every WOMAN involved in sport. Women have been threatened and shamed into silence. This push to allow men into women’s sports is systematically grooming girls and women to be emotionally and physically abused, sexually assaulted, and trafficked. No more. More and more athletes, coaches, parents are speaking up. We will not be silenced.”
Just this week, IWF announced its newest ambassador, Sia Li’ili’i, captain of the women’s volleyball team at the University of Nevada Reno (UNR) and a rising voice for IW’s Stand With Women initiative advocating for the protection of women’s spaces and sports. Li’ili’i joins other IWF ambassadors, including Coach Kim Russell, Paula Scanlan, Riley Gaines, and Payton McNabb.
IW ambassadors have been integral voices in the fight to protect women’s spaces:
- IW ambassadors have testified before Congress on the impact of allowing biological males in women’s private spaces and the dangers of the Biden-Harris administration’s changes to Title IX; met with dozens of lawmakers to highlight the need for federal legislation that protects women’s sports; joined U.S. senators for a roundtable discussion on preserving Title IX; and joined Speaker of the House Mike Johnson for a panel discussion during National Women’s Sports Week.
- Written firsthand testimony from IW Ambassador Amie Ichikawa, a former inmate in the California state prison system, was instrumental in the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s decision to block the nomination of Judge Sarah Netburn to a U.S. District Court following Netburn’s history of allowing men to transfer into women’s prisons.
- IW ambassadors have rallied outside the 2023 and 2024 NCAA Annual Conventions, the USA Cycling National Championships, and the U.S. Women’s Open to demand sports governing bodies end discriminatory policies that take away opportunities for women to compete.
- IW ambassadors headlined the Our Bodies, Our Sports “Take Back Title IX” Summer 2024 Bus Tour across America, traveling throughout 30 states in 30 days to share their stories and sound the alarm on the Biden-Harris administration’s Title IX rewrite.
- Detransitioner and IW Ambassador Prisha Mosley has worked to expose the irreversible medicalization of children taking place under the guise of “gender-affirming care” nationwide. In New Mexico this year, specifically, sharing her story resulted in severe media bias against Prisha and a Cease-and-Desist letter issued by Independent Women’s Law Center, calling for Prisha’s authentic story to be shared.
- With IW ambassadors sharing their stories and breaking into the media—and IW Features, the storytelling arm of IW, providing a platform for more voices to be heard—anti-women policies are being exposed as support for pro-women, pro-fairness, and pro-safety policy grows.
To book these female athletes for interviews, please email [email protected].