Our Bodies, Our Sports 'Take Back Title IX' Tour Kicks Off Today
Join IWF + partners May 29-June 28th
Good morning,
Welcome to a special Wednesday issue of Outsider on the Inside. I hope this dispatch from in and around the nation’s capital on underreported topics finds you well.
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This dispatch will chiefly focus on IWF’s Our Bodies Our Sports bus tour.
Save Title IX Bus Tour Coming to a City Near YOU
Coming to a city and state near YOU: Independent Women’s Forum + partners are bringing the Our Bodies, Our Sports ”Take Back Title IX” Bus Tour to many major cities around the U.S. from now until June 28th, 2024.
Today, the tour kicks off in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
The tour is hosted by the namesake Our Bodies, Our Sports coalition, which is hosting the bus tour. An IWF media advisory said this:
The tour, hosted by Our Bodies, Our Sports coalition, the nation’s first and only coalition of women’s advocacy organizations from across the political spectrum fighting to protect women’s sports, will call attention to the Biden administration’s Title IX regulations and the devastating impact the new rules will have on women and the growing threat to women’s equal athletic opportunity, privacy, and safety.
The bus tour will appear in these states: Oklahoma, Montana, Nevada, Arizona, Nebraska, Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, North Carolina, Washington D.C., Virginia, Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Wisconsin, and Maryland.
These are the planned stops thus far (I’ll be attending the D.C. stop on June 25th, 2024):
Scranton, PA 5/29
Lancaster, PA 5/31
Oklahoma City, OK 6/7
Kalispell, MT 6/10
Las Vegas, NV 6/12
Scottsdale, AZ 6/13
Omaha, NE 6/15
Columbus, OH 6/18
Charleston, WV 6/19
Chapel Hill, NC 6/20
Washington, DC 6/25
Virginia Beach, VA 6/27
Nashville, TN 6/28
More stops to be added.
Here’s more about the coalition:
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.
Why the bus tour, and why now? The advisory adds:
On the 52nd anniversary of Title IX (Sunday, June 23, 2024), the “Take Back Title IX” tour will roll into Washington, D.C. and hold a press conference near the White House, followed by a rally event to commemorate the final annual celebration of the landmark sex equality law before the unlawful rewrite by the Biden administration upend Title IX as we have always known it. 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, opportunities, and athletics.
The final stretch of the tour takes place during National Women’s Sports Week, initiated by Independent Women’s Forum in 2022 and observed annually during the week of June 23. In recognition of Women’s Sports Week, June 23-June 29, the tour is planning two special events featuring music performances in Washington, DC and Nashville, TN to celebrate female athletes – past, present, and future – for their athletic participation and achievement in sport.
Interested to attend? Fill out the form below.
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—Gabriella