Republicans used a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday to condemn male participation in women’s sports as another form of discrimination against female athletes.
Democrats left their two witness slots unused, while the committee’s top Democrat, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, called the hearing a low priority and a “vendetta” before leaving.
Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley, the committee chairman, said women have historically faced barriers involving voting, professions, jury service, and access to credit.
“Women should not be asked again to cede their opportunities just to make men comfortable,” he said.
The hearing came as opposition to coed competition nearly derailed [1] the Protect College Sports Act, legislation intended to establish national standards for college sports.
Concerns centered on whether the measure could exempt the NCAA from state laws barring males from women’s sports, but Republicans added an amendment eliminating that interpretation.
Grassley argued that growing male participation in women’s competition coincides with increased viewership and higher pay.
He credited Iowa basketball star Caitlin Clark for the increase in WNBA player salaries contained in this year’s collective bargaining agreement.
Florida Sen. Ashley Moody said she was once a “travel baseball mom,” while Grassley noted that he attended Northern Iowa’s volleyball victory over Wichita State on Friday.
Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn also promoted her resolution designating Oct. 10 as American Girls in Sports Day.
Blackburn said the date refers to the Roman numerals XX, representing female sex chromosomes, and said she plans to wear an XX shirt this Oct. 10.
WATCH:
Democrats did not show up to today’s hearing on protecting women’s sports. They had no witnesses and asked no questions because they know their position is indefensible.
We are going to keep defending Title IX and the opportunities our daughters and granddaughters have earned. pic.twitter.com/Aqxr1j8R0b [2]
— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) September 23, 2026 [3]
Republicans also repeatedly criticized Democrats for refusing to hear testimony from the witnesses.
Independent Council on Women’s Sports cofounder Kim Jones, a former All American Stanford tennis player, described female athletes surrendering a podium to a male as an “institutionalized, sanctioned humiliation ritual.”
Her daughter competed against and shared a locker room with male swimmer Lia Thomas.
Riley Gaines and other female athletes who faced male competition spoke at a Senate Judiciary Republican press conference following the hearing.
They included Lainey Armstead, a plaintiff in the Supreme Court case that upheld state bans on males competing in girls’ sports.
Former professional soccer player Carly Smolak said coed participation amounts to “mass grooming” that pressures girls to suppress their “correct instincts to cater to the desires of boys.”
She also argued that girls should not need to reach elite competition before receiving fair treatment.
Smolak described learning that her former Australian rules football team added a male player who was a registered sex offender.
Players were not told that he had spent 15 years in a military prison for abusing children, she said.
Asked by Utah Sen. Mike Lee about safety in a sport with less padding than American football, Smolak pointed to tackling and physical differences.
“The athletes don’t even have to be particularly skilled” to injure women, she said, noting that men are generally bigger, stronger, faster, and often taller.
WATCH:
Former professional soccer player, Carly Smolak lays out how Democrats are failing girls:
“We are failing young female athletes by forcing girls to choose between playing co-ed sports or not playing…the message to young girls is that boys can be better female athletes.” pic.twitter.com/MfNsbgcP15 [4]
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 23, 2026 [5]
Lawyer William Bock called for mandatory, inexpensive, and nonintrusive sex verification screening, usually through saliva.
Bock, known for leading the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency investigation of cyclist Lance Armstrong’s government sponsored team, said screening would protect opportunities secured under Title IX.
Bock’s lawsuit on behalf of Gaines and other female athletes argues that the NCAA is bound by Title IX because it indirectly receives federal money through member colleges and maintains a research relationship with the Department of War.
The lawsuit therefore argues the NCAA must exclude males from women’s sports.
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley questioned the NCAA’s contention that it is exempt from Title IX under a disputed Supreme Court precedent.
WATCH:
Sen. Josh Hawley grilled a witness at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on women’s sports, pressing her on whether Yale swimmers ever consented to sharing a locker room with Lia Thomas — a biological male competing on the UPenn women’s swim team.
The answer was no. Kim Jones,… pic.twitter.com/qNr59Y6RTh [6]
— Fox News Politics (@foxnewspolitics) September 23, 2026 [7]
Bock also argued that interstate commerce and taxpayer support, including public money for stadiums, require women’s leagues to bar men.
Among major sports organizations, Bock said only the Women’s Tennis Association has established strict biological standards.
The association adopted SRY gene screening this summer, months after the International Olympic Committee, which stopped sex screening at the 2000 Sydney games.
Jones noted that 82% of female athletes in a large survey after the 1996 Atlanta games supported screening.
Bock further said many American sports organizations have not fully complied with President Trump’s executive order on women’s sports, citing weaknesses in the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee’s policy.
The U.S. Soccer Federation permits males in women’s competition when their “stated gender is sincerely held, and part of a person’s core identity.”
Meanwhile, Jones rejected Durbin’s citation of Trevor Project research about LGBTQ youth suicide as “emotional blackmail.”
Durbin also cited NCAA President Charlie Baker’s statement that fewer than 10 transgender athletes compete among half a million NCAA athletes.
Bock responded that the NCAA does not test sex and said Baker was only describing publicly transgender athletes personally known to him.
Hawley accused Baker of having “deliberately misled this committee” about locker room accommodations.
Bock said the NCAA’s claimed flexibility means female athletes avoid their own locker rooms, while Jones cited allegations that swimmers used closets to avoid Thomas during the 2022 NCAA championships.