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[–]MarkTwainiac 7 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 0 fun8 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I looked at biographical information on the members of the group who were named in the USA article as the ones who came up with this atrocious policy recommendation to see how many were affected by Title IX - a law that doesn't affect all sports in the US, only the scholastic sports programs in US educational institutions that receive federal funds. Here's what I found:

Nancy Hogshead-Makar (born 1962, now 59) would have fully benefitted from Title IX's scholastic sports provisions but didn't need them coz as a child swimmer she came up, as most swimmers do, through swim clubs and associations, not through school programs. At age 11, she was hand-picked by to be trained and sponsored by the coach of the Florida Gators, who has trained many Olympians. Hogshead-Makar became nationally ranked at age 12. In HS, she left home to train with the swim team at the University of Florida. It's not clear how much "regular" schooling she got. But her school experience and her childhood and adolescence were not typical of the average American public school student then or now.

Martina Navratilova (born in 1956, now 64) was not affected by Title IX either way coz she grew up and first became a world-class tennis player in communist Czechoslovakia. After she gained asylum in the US in 1974 at age 18, Navratilova did not attend either HS or college/university in the US. I have not been able to find any evidence that Navratilova has ever taken a class or course at a US educational institution that receives federal funds - which again is the sole category of institution that Title IX applies to.

The USA gave Navratilova the freedom to pursue her career and live as she saw fit. Now in her mid-60s, it seems odd - grotesque even - that she wants to deprive present and future generations of American girls and women equal opportunity and fair play in scholastic sports and to enshrine in US federal law the idea that "ordinary" females who aren't up to her elite level of sports performance must sacrifice their own albeit smaller, more modest sports ambitions in order to put the wants and demands of males who ID as trans over their own best interests.

Donna Lopiano (born 1946, now 74) was not allowed to join Little League Baseball coz of her sex. She should know better, but perhaps her blind spot is due to the fact that she did not come up playing school sports - her entire sports career was extracurricular, apart from the school system. From Wikipedia:

At the age of 16, she was offered the opportunity to play for the Connecticut Brakettes, a national championship women's softball team. During her ten year career with the Brakettes, she traveled to Europe and Asia and compiled a career record of 183–18. She delivered 1633 strikeouts in 817 innings, for an average of just under two per inning. She finished her Brakettes career in the top ten of several categories including hits, RBIs, runs and home runs. Overall, throughout her athletic career, she participated in 26 national championships in four sports and was a nine-time All-American at four different positions in softball.

From the website of the CT Women's Hall of Fame:

After the 1972 season, Lopiano left the Brakettes after only ten years, a career some people considered relatively short, but Lopiano had other dreams to pursue. She had earned a position as an assistant athletic director at Brooklyn College, where she also enjoyed coaching basketball, volleyball, and softball. In 1975, she moved to Austin, TX to become the Director of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women at the University of Texas. Here, her programs for women athletes won eighteen national championships in six sports and produced 314 All-Americans. As Lopiano herself was always committed to her studies, she made sure that her athletes were, too. Under her guard, the mean SAT scores of her players went up 100 points.

In short, whilst Lopiano coached many different scholastic sports teams in the US, she appears never to have played on one - or played individual scholastic sports, either.

Doriane Coleman (born 1962, now 59) was one of the first American girls/women to have fully benefitted from Title IX. She went to college on a sports scholarship coz Title IX made it possible for her to have a HS track career. She efinitely should know better, and her testimony in the Caster Semenya case made it appear that she did/does know better.

Also, it should be pointed out that female track & field athletes are the group who've most dramatically benefitted from Title IX's sports provisions. Coz track & field is one of the least expensive programs to run, and doesn't require a huge investment in facilities (unlike, say, swimming, American football and ice hockey do), pretty much all schools have track & field programs, even the ones in poorer districts and urban areas. As a result, Title IX had probably its most dramatic effects on HS girls - particularly black girls -from economically deprived areas and households with an interest in, and talent for, track & field.

Donna de Varona (born 1947, now 73) was a child prodigy swimmer who qualified for the US Olympic team at age 13. Like Hogshead-Makar, de Varona's swim career was entirely separate from the standard US education system, and her schooling appears to have been unconventional coz of her phenomenal achievements as a swimmer. A two-time Olympic gold medalist as well as an Olympic record holder, she was also a huge celebrity, appearing on the covers of Look, Life and Sports Illustrated magazines. At age 16, AP and UP named her "the most outstanding woman athlete in the world." At age 17, she she began a highly successful and illustrious career as a sports broadcaster with ABC's Wide World of Sports. She has received many awards for her television work, and has held many powerful positions.

While de Varona continued to pursue her television career, she also began her work in Washington D.C. as an activist for sports and fitness opportunities for America's youth. Since her retirement from competitions in 1965, she has served five terms on the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports and has been appointed to Presidential Commissions under presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, and Bush. A consultant to the United States Senate, de Varona took a leave of absence from her pioneering television career to help with the passage of the 1978 Amateur Sports Act which restructured how Olympic sports are governed in the United States. Subsequently, she was called back to the Senate to consult on amendments to the landmark Olympic legislation and eventually worked to promote and safeguard Title IX of the Equal Education Amendments Act which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any educational institution receiving Federal funding. Named a special advisor to President Clinton's Drug Czar, General Barry McCaffrey, de Varona helped with the establishment and funding for both the United States Anti-Doping Agency and the World Anti-Doping Agency, which are entrusted with eradicating the use of illegal substances to enhance performance in sports.

A promoter of women in sport, in the mid-1970s, she joined Billie Jean King in establishing the Women's Sports Foundation. She served as the first President (1979–1984) and subsequently, became the chairman and Honorary Trustee for the Foundation. Under de Varona's leadership, the Women's Sport Foundation initiated the Hall of Fame Dinner (now the Annual Salute to Women in Sports Awards Dinner), Travel and Training Grants, research projects, a toll-free telephone number and annual visits to Washington, D.C., to educate Congress about Title IX and the importance of providing sport and physical activity opportunities on an equitable basis to both men and women. Over the years, the Foundation has raised more than $30 million to support its programs.

That's from Wikipedia. The list of de Varona's accomplishments and connections goes on.

De Varona did not attend college until her mid-30s; she graduated from UCLA when she was 39. She does not appear to have played or coached any scholastic sports, ever. Again, her schooling and life is very different from the schooling and life of the girls in the US who have benefitted from, and who need, Title IX - such as the HS girls in CT forced to compete in track & field with the two TIMs who regularly trounced and utterly demoralized them, and the women in college/uni forced to compete in track & field against TIMs CeCe Telfer and June Eastwood.

Tracy Sundlun (born 1952, now age 69) did not need Title IX coz he's male and he went to a pricey, ultra-elite prep school, Phillips Exeter Academy, besides.

(Please Note: my good friend Beth Stelzer of Save Women's Sports told me Tuesday night at 9 pm USA Eastern time that the list of persons USA Today says came this policy recommendation might not be complete; apparently other individuals were involved too. But I won't know for sure until I get to discuss it more with her tomorrow.)

But for now, I think it's highly significant that the individuals named by USA Today as making up the group that came up with this policy statement are age 59, 64, 74, 59, 73, and 69.