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[UPDATE] The California library that kicked out Sophia Lorey, a former college athlete and the outreach director of California Family Council, for referring to males who identify as female as “biological males” has agreed to a settlement changing the library’s policies.
Last August, the Yolo County chapter of Moms for Liberty held a forum on fairness and safety in women’s sports in the Blanchard Community Room at the Mary L. Stephens–Davis Branch Library. Lorey was one of the speakers but was stopped from finishing her speech because a library employee claimed that it violated library policy and California law to “misgender” someone.
In response, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Yolo County chapter of Moms for Liberty, the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, the California Family Council, Lorey, and four others against the library administrators.
The parties have now reached an agreement, whereby library officials will change their policies to require staff to “not interfere with presentations or other speech by individuals or groups that have reserved meeting rooms based on the content of such speech” and to instruct staff “to curtail any disruptive behavior.”
As part of the agreement, library officials agreed to pay $70,000 in attorney’s fees and damages.
The library officials also agreed to allow the plaintiffs and other groups to hold a discussion on fairness in women’s sports at the library. That event took place on April 13with no issues.
Lorey wrote on X, “ICYMI: Remember when the Yolo County Library kicked us out for saying Men don’t belong in women’s sports!? Well we went back. We said it again. And we didn’t get kicked out. At the end of the day you CANNOT silence TRUTH Truth = MEN DON’T BELONG IN WOMENS SPORTS.”
She also shared a clip of her speaking at the library, saying, “At the end of the day, remember the simple argument is just men don’t belong in women’s sports, and it’s common sense, and it’s pretty cool that we get to say that and not get kicked out of places anymore,” which was met with applause.
ADF Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer, director of the ADF Center for Academic Freedom, said in a press release,
“Women have the right to speak about their concerns regarding men competing in their sports, and public officials have a constitutional duty to uphold that right regardless of whether they agree with the point of view presented. Women have the right to speak about their concerns regarding men competing in their sports, and public officials have a constitutional duty to uphold that right regardless of whether they agree with the point of view presented.”
The settlement allowing these women to speak comes after the BBC found that many elite women’s athletes are uncomfortable competing against males but that they are also uncomfortable speaking publicly about it.
{Published August 21, 2023} A male librarian shouted down a former women’s soccer player when she tried to speak about the struggles women have in sports because he claimed that she misgendered biological males who compete in women’s sports.
In California it is illegal to speak a view in a public building that differs from that of the California government, according to a librarian who kicked Sophia Lorey out of an event to which she was invited to speak. Lorey was giving a speech at the Mary L. Stephens Davis Branch Library in Davis, California, yet when she mentioned men playing on women’s sports teams, transgender activists and library employees began interrupting her for “misgendering” people.
A library employee stated that referring to transgender females (biological males who claim to be female) as males was discrimination and violated library policy and California law. When asked for the statute which said that you could not “misgender” someone, he was unable to provide one.
The former soccer player started speaking and talked about her dream of playing college soccer. Then she stated, “Current ten-year-old girls cannot live out this same dream as long as men are allowed to compete in women’s sports.”
Activists then began heckling and interrupting her. She opted for the phrase “biological men” but was told by the same male library employee that if she said it again, she would be kicked out of the library. As she continued using the phrase, the employee then said if she didn’t leave, he would shut the entire event down.
The incident was caught on video.
Lorey said on X, formerly called Twitter, that she was shocked. “I directly said why am I being asked to leave and he told me ‘Because you are misgendering, you were talking about men in women sports,’” she wrote in part.
Biological males that identify as female and compete in women’s events have dominated those competitions. Most recently, a 40-year-old male powerlifter in Canada finished first in a women’s regional competition by lifting 463 pounds more than his closest competitor, unofficially breaking several Canadian and world records. In 2022, biological male William Thomas, who now goes by Lia Thomas, brought the issue to the forefront when he handily won a Division 1 NCAA women’s swimming championship, despite previously competing for three years as a mediocre competitor in NCAA male swimming events.
The issue of biological men in women’s sports has also led to women being erased, not just in sports but in their right to speak about the issue. An attorney, Erin Friday, spoke in Lorey’s defense, telling the protesters that while she was happy they were there with their signs, they must also honor Lorey’s First Amendment right to speak and believe what she wanted. By contrast, another lawyer claimed that in a public place, speakers could not discriminate.
Kaitlyn Wheeler, a former University of Kentucky women’s swimmer and advocate for keeping males out of women’s sports, tweeted, “Once again, here is a prime example of not only first amendment rights being taken away but the silencing of women. @SophiaSLoreythis only emphasizes how much louder we must speak the TRUTH! Keep up the great work.”
Fellow former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines tweeted, “This is ridiculous, but not shocking….a female athlete silenced for calling a spade a spade. They won’t even engage in a civil conversation. Props to this gal for sticking her ground.”
Heckler’s vetoes, or the practice of detractors silencing a speaker, have been ruled to violate the First Amendment. They are a favorite practice of activists who seek to stop speakers from challenging their beliefs. In recent years, they have been used to shut down a variety of conservative views but seem to be used most widely to stop dissent from LGBTQ orthodoxy. What is crucial is yet again, men have used the façade of protecting “women” to stop women from decrying the wrongful actions of men against women. If that sounds confusing, that’s because it is.
Female athletes are uniquely qualified to speak about the issues that come with letting men compete in their sports. Yet when they speak about these problems, left wing activists try to keep them from doing so. It’s difficult to speak about the problem of males in women’s spaces when you aren’t allowed to call them men or biological males; if the males are “women,” as the activists insist, you have no complaint.
That is what the left seeks to do, by calling it discrimination to disagree with transgender ideology, they can stop discussion. The only way to push back is for more people to follow the lead of Lorey, Gaines, Wheeler, and others by standing up for the truth and refusing to be silenced.
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