Lawyer to College Fix: NCAA ignoring female athletes’ safety, privacy concerns
Female college athletes are “crying out for justice,” safety, and privacy in a lawsuit challenging the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s transgender policies, their attorney told The College Fix in an exclusive interview.
Attorney William Bock III said the 16 plaintiffs, all current or former collegiate athletes, are challenging the NCAA and the University of Georgia for violating Title IX’s provisions for equal opportunity in sports by allowing males to compete in the women’s category.
The lawsuit also alleges female athletes’ right to bodily privacy under the 14th Amendment was violated.
According to the suit, the NCAA authorized “naked men possessing full male genitalia to disrobe in front of non- consenting college women and creating situations in which unwilling female college athletes unwittingly or reluctantly expose their naked or partially clad bodies to males.”
Bock told The Fix in a recent phone interview that many athletes sent letters sharing their concerns about these policies to the NCAA, but they were ignored.
“They’re crying out for justice and the NCAA won’t even talk to them,” he said. “It isn’t even willing to respect their concerns enough to give them an audience. So it became clear that the only thing that would have a chance of changing their policy is filing a lawsuit.”
Bock (pictured) told The Fix, “The NCAA is so committed to radical gender ideology that they have completely lost concern for women’s rights.”
“It’s very clear that the NCAA violated the law,” he said.
Bock formerly worked as general counsel for the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and served as the lead attorney for USADA in the case against professional cyclist Lance Armstrong.
“The advantage that Lance Armstrong got through doping pales in comparison to the advantage that male athletes have when competing against females in collegiate sports,” he said.
“The NCAA suggests that one can reduce or eliminate the performance gap [between men and women] by suppressing testosterone and that’s ludicrous from a matter of science,” Bock told The Fix.
Bock also served on the NCAA Committee on Infractions for several years. However, he quit earlier this year after expressing concerns about transgender athletes like former University of Pennsylvania swimmer William “Lia” Thomas, a male who identifies as female who won an NCAA Division I championship on the women’s team in 2022.
Safety is among female athletes’ biggest concerns, Bock said. “The NCAA is not in many instances even telling women that they’re competing against a male. And that’s dangerous … in a contact sport where you can get a concussion.”
Female athletes speak out
Two of the plaintiffs also spoke with The Fix in a phone interview about their concerns for safety, fairness, and the overall future of women’s sports.
Ainsley Erzen (pictured right), a soccer and track athlete at the University of Arkansas, said, “We want the stories that people are seeing now to be the last ones. We don’t want the generations in the future to deal with that.”
Erzen said she and her fellow athletes are fighting so women will have the opportunities to set records, win championships and earn college scholarships.
“What kind of message are we sending to women — but especially to young girls — when we tell them that their safety doesn’t matter, their rights don’t matter, their opportunities don’t matter, their futures don’t matter?” she told The Fix.
Kaitlynn Wheeler (pictured left), a former swimmer for the University of Kentucky, said the protection of women’s sports is a ”common-sense issue.”
Wheeler told The Fix speaking up is important “because the overwhelming majority of people are on our side.”
“This lawsuit is really not about hurting anyone. It’s about helping the women who have been hurt and preventing it from happening in the future. It’s about ensuring fair, equal, and safe competition and I think that just about everyone should want that,” she said.
An NCAA spokesperson declined to comment on the lawsuit in response to a request from The Fix.
“College sports are the premier stage for women’s sports in America, and while the NCAA does not comment on pending litigation, the Association and its members will continue to promote Title IX, make unprecedented investments in women’s sports and ensure fair competition in all NCAA championships,” the association said in an emailed statement.
Others involved in the lawsuit include Riley Gaines, a former 12-time All-American swimmer at the University of Kentucky and current advocate for women’s sports. The Independent Council on Women’s Sports is supporting the athletes’ case.
MORE: NCAA initiative aims to recruit more ‘student-athletes of color’
IMAGE: Ainsley Erzen/Instagram, Kaitlynn Wheeler/X, Independent Council on Women’s Sports
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