Washington, DC, Aug. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Are Women Being Erased?
ICONS Honors 102nd Anniversary of Women’s Right to Vote,
Defends Title IX Right of Women’s Sports
While recognizing the 102nd anniversary of the landmark 19th Amendment for women’s suffrage on August 26, the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS) is calling on people to oppose the Biden Administration's current attempt to erase women from their hard-won Title IX civil rights protection.
“Women should not be forced to tolerate a rollback of our rights, including being discriminated against at the ballot box, women-only safe spaces, or on the sports field,'' said Sue Walsh, Olympic swimmer and former American record holder.
ICONS is urging those who support women’s sports to file a comment in the Federal Register to protest the Biden Administration's effort to change the Department of Education’s Title IX definition of “sex” to include “gender” and “gender identity.” A link to the Federal Register with instructions to comment is available here, as well as www.iconswomen.com
The deadline for comments is Sept. 12, 2022. If the Title IX change is enacted, the federal government could punish federally funded schools and institutions for upholding biological, same-sex (male or female) norms in sports teams, locker rooms, and other private spaces.
“Over a century ago, the courageous suffragettes fought to secure equal rights of representation for women,” said Marshi Smith, an NCAA swimming champion and co-founder of ICONS. “They encountered resistance intended to silence them, yet they organized and stood together to establish what is now the 19th Amendment.”
“I am grateful to the brave women of the past for providing an example of how women of all ethnicities, political affiliations, and faiths can band together and speak with one voice,” said Kim Jones, an NCAA tennis All-American and co-founder of ICONS. “As I’ve recently witnessed women’s sports opportunities and awards handed over to biological males, it is clear to me that women need to summon that same courage and raise our collective voices again now to protect Title IX.”
The 19th Amendment, which in 1920 was added to the U.S. Constitution granting women the right to vote, is a monumental achievement, emerging some 72 years after the first women’s rights convention gave rise to the women’s suffrage movement. However, more than a century later, it appears biological females face a familiar threat once again as their sex-based rights and protections come under attack through the proposed Title IX overhaul.
As with most federal laws, the 19th Amendment used the time-honored definition of “sex,” stating that the rights of U.S. citizens to vote “shall not be denied…on account of sex.” Title IX was enacted 50 years later, in 1972, as part of the civil rights laws in education. Title IX was specifically aimed at upholding women’s rights by prohibiting sex-based discrimination in any federally funded educational institution. But increasingly, women are losing the rights the generations before them fought so long and hard to receive. It begs the question, What’s next?
“The rights of women to compete in sports exclusively against other biological women is paramount,” said Donna de Varona, a two-time Olympic champion and Title IX advocateexpert. “Those that crafted Title IX knew that, although women should and could compete head-to-head in the classroom, to elevate women in sports, a separate and protected space was necessary. It’s time to defend our sex-based rights not just in sports, but every aspect of our culture.”
ICONS, inaugurated in June 2022, seeks to achieve a fair playing field across all women’s sports and defend the original intent of Title IX by expanding, empowering, and protecting women’s sports and female athletes of the past, present, and future. ICONS is supported by world-class athletes, concerned parents, internationally renowned scientists, doctors, health care experts, lawyers, advocacy groups and women’s organizations. You can learn more about ICONS at www.iconswomen.com
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