Georgia Lt. Governor Burt Jones on Friday issued a statement celebrating the “courage” of Riley Gaines and the other plaintiffs in the lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and a number of Georgia universities.
Jones (pictured above) commended the athletes “for their courage” and demanded the NCAA apologize and reverse course in a statement.
“As the father of a daughter, the allegations made in the suit against multiple Georgia universities and the NCAA are deeply disturbing,” said Jones.
“Biological men should not be permitted to compete in women’s sports, and they should not be allowed to use the same locker room as the female athletes.” He continued, “I commend these women for their courage, and I demand that the NCAA and these universities issue an apology and right their wrongs by prohibiting men from competing in women’s sports.”
The Republican then warned, “If they cave to the Radical Left and refuse to act on this issue, we will.”
Georgia universities targeted by the lawsuit include Georgia Tech, the University of Georgia, and the University of North Georgia. The Georgia Board of Regents is also named as a defendant.
Gaines (pictured here) and 15 other college athletes announced the lawsuit Thursday, with the other plaintiffs including a number of volleyball and track athletes who say their rights were harmed by the NCAA decision to allow competitors who are biologically male but identify as female compete with those who are biologically female and change in the same locker rooms.
Riley Gaines / X
“I’m suing the NCAA along with 15 other collegiate athletes who have lost out on titles, records, & roster spots to men posing as women,” wrote Gaines in a Thursday post to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. She declared, “The NCAA continues to explicitly violate the federal civil rights law of Title IX. About time someone did something about it.”
Gaines first drew awareness after she protested the the inclusion of biologically male athlete Lia Thomas in a swimming competition, and the lawsuit alleges the NCAA violated Gaines’ rights by allowing Thomas to compete with biological women despite being the opposite sex.
The NCAA has since codified the inclusion of transgender athletes into its policy, even as a number of Republican governors have urged the group to reconsider amid concerns about the sexes being forced to compete despite Title IX gender protections.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Lt Gov Burt Jones” by Lt Gov Burt Jones.
