Martina Navratilova, Riley Gaines, Donna de Varona, Jennifer Sey Join Female Athletes For Rally in Washington, DC to "Take Back Title IX" on Nationwide Tour
Tuesday, June 25 Doors Open: 5:30 pm Program: 6:00 pm
WASHINGTON, June 24, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- On Tuesday, June 25, members of the media are invited to attend and cover the Our Bodies, Our Sports"Take Back Title IX" Summer 2024 Bus Tour rally in Washington, DC at The Bullpen. This rally-style event will feature current and former athletes, coaches, and prominent women's advocates, including Martina Navratilova, one of the greatest tennis players of all time, Donna de Varona, swimming Olympic Champion and Emmy award-winning sports broadcaster, Riley Gaines, 12x All-American NCAA swimmer, and Jennifer Sey, former USA champion gymnast. The program includes music by Nashville's Alexis Wilkins.
Equality is Not a Game: It’s Time to Take Back Title IX and Save Women’s Sports
Take Back Title IX
OBOS Washington DC Rally
Our Bodies, Our Sports Summer 2024 "Take Back Title IX" Bus Tour Map
Our Bodies, Our Sports "Take Back Title IX" Bus Tour
(PRNewsfoto/Independent Women's Forum)
The rally is hosted by Our Bodies, Our Sports, the nation's first and only coalition of women's advocacy organizations from across the political spectrum banding together to save women's sports. Formed in 2022, Our Bodies, Our Sports has been on the frontlines fighting against those who threaten women-only spaces and opportunities. The coalition is responsible for the rise of the largest, most ideologically diverse, women's movement of our time.
Our Bodies, Our Sports has been traveling the country since May 29 for its coast-to-coast "Take Back Title IX" Summer 2024 Bus Tour. The tour visited a different city every day since hitting the road to engage the public and shed light on the consequences of the Biden administration's new Title IX regulations, which are set to take effect on August 1.
The new rules flip Title IX on its head — stripping all sex-based protections in education, turning back the clock on women's rights, and requiring schools to allow anyone who self-identifies as a woman into women's spaces, opportunities, and sports.
The rally will be held just days after overnight vandals defaced nearly every inch of the "Take Back Title IX" bus following an Our Bodies, Our Sports 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.
Photos and videos of bus tour events and stops throughout the country HERE. [Credit: Independent Women's Forum.]
At the Washington, DC rally, Our Bodies Our Sports will unveil two open letters – one to the Biden administration and the other to leaders in Congress. The letters will be on display at the rally for attendees to sign to showcase the widespread support to protect women's sports and stop the illegal rewrite of Title IX.
WHAT: Our Bodies, Our Sports "Take Back Title IX" Summer 2024 Bus Tour Rally in Washington, DC
WHY: Our Bodies, Our Sports is hitting the road from coast to coast this summer, activating supporters across the country to take back Title IX and stand up for women's sports. New regulations put out by the Biden administration violate Title IX, the statute they claim to enforce, by requiring schools to open up women's spaces to males.
WHO: The Our Bodies, Our Sports coalition formed in 2022 to defend women's sports and the integrity of the female sporting category. Our Bodies, Our Sports is the nation's first and only coalition of women's advocacy organizations from across the political spectrum fighting for equal opportunity and fairness in women's sports.
This event is open to the public. Current and former student athletes and teams of all ages, parents, families, coaches, and other interested parties are encouraged to attend.
Martina Navratilova, OLY, one of the greatest tennis players of all time, founding member of the Women's Sports Policy Working Group
Riley Gaines, 12x All-American swimmer, 5x SEC Champion and record holder, Independent Women's Forum ambassador, host of "Gaines for Girls" on OutKick, and plaintiff in Gaines et al. v. NCAA
Donna de Varona, Olympic Champion, Swimming, 17-year President of the Women's Sports Foundation, Emmy Award Winning Sports Broadcaster, founding member, Women's Sports Policy Working Group
Nancy Hogshead J.D., OLY, 3x Olympic champion and silver medalist, and CEO of Champion Women
Coach Sylvia Hatchell, former UNC CHapel Hill women's basketball head coach, sixth all-time winningest coach in women's college basketball, the only coach to win national championships at three different levels – AIAW, NAIA, and NCAA
Paula Scanlan, former University of Pennsylvania swimmer and teammate of Lia Thomas, and Independent Women's Forum ambassador
Payton McNabb, former high school volleyball player who was severely injured by a male on the women's volleyball court and Independent Women's Forum ambassador
Coach Kim Russell, former head women's lacrosse coach at Oberlin College and Independent Women's Forum ambassador
Selina Soule, 4x track and field National Qualifier forced out of regional championships due to males taking women's spots
Kara Dansky, president of Women's Declaration International USA
Coach Barbara Ehardt, former 15-year career NCAA Division I women's basketball coach and current member of the Idaho House of Representatives from the 33rd district
Macy Petty, former NCAA volleyball player and Young Women for America ambassador
Cynthia Monteleone, Team USA world champion track athlete who competed against a male athlete at the World Championship
Jennifer Sey, founder and CEO of XX-XY Athletics, 7x member of the women's national artistic gymnastics team, and 1986 U.S. Women's All-Around National Champion gymnast
Linnea Saltz, former NCAA track and field athlete from Southern Utah University who competed against June Eastwood, the first transgender-identifying male athlete to compete in DI cross country
Margot Heffernan, Women's Liberation Front (WoLF) vice president
Kaitlynn Wheeler, former University of Kentucky DI swimmer
Irene Lawrence, public action coordinator for Women's Declaration International USA
May Mailman, director of Independent Women's Law Center
**Mult-box will be provided.** **There will be opportunities for media pull asides.**
Please direct all RSVPs and media inquiries to[email protected]. Press credentials provided on location.
BACKGROUND:
TAKE BACK TITLE IX SUMMER 2024 BUS TOUR
The tour, throughout the month of June has been traveling coast to coast, kicking off with two events in Pennsylvania, events in Whitefish, Montana; Salt Lake City, Utah; Las Vegas, Nevada; Scottsdale, Arizona; Columbus, Ohio; Charleston, West Virginia; and Chapel Hill, North Carolina. The grand finale events take place this week during National Women's Sports Week includes rallies in Washington DC; Virginia Beach, Virginia; and Nashville, Tennessee.
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.
NATIONAL WOMEN'S SPORTS WEEK [June 23 - 29]
The final stretch of the "Take Back Title IX" bus tour takes place during 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.
Last year, Congresswoman Claudia Tenney and Senator Joni Ernst introduced a bicameral resolution to designate the week including June 23, 2023, as National Women's Sports Week.
Independent Women's Forum is dedicated to developing and advancing policies that aren't just well intended but actually enhance people's freedom, choices, and opportunities.
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