USA Today Bows To Pressure, Alters Column By Female Track Star Who Speaks Out Against Transgender Athletes

Throughout an opinion piece written by Alliance Defending Freedom client Chelsea Mitchell, USA Today has changed all uses of the word “male” to “transgender,” saying that they "regret" the "hurtful language." The article also now carries an "editor’s note" at the top of it as well.

The article by Mitchell, published on May 22, speaks about the difficulty biological women have in competing against transgender athletes who take spots from them.

"That experience is why three of my fellow female athletes and I filed a lawsuit last year with Alliance Defending Freedom against the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC): because girls and women shouldn’t be stripped of their right to fair competition," Mitchell wrote.

As the article points out, in 2017, 2018 and 2019, a pair of males who identify as female took 15 women's state track championship titles. The males also took away more than 85 opportunities to participate in higher level competitions that belonged to female track athletes.

"That’s wrong. And it chips away at women’s confidence and our belief in our own abilities," Mitchell wrote.

"It’s happened to me over and over. Every time I walk up to the starting line, I try to tell myself that I can overcome the unfair odds — I can win, even though the race is stacked against me.

"But besides the psychological toll of experiencing unfair losses over and over, the CIAC’s policy has more tangible harms for women. It robs girls of the chance to race in front of college scouts who show up for elite meets, and to compete for the scholarships and opportunities that come with college recruitment. I’ll never know how my own college recruitment was impacted by losing those four state championship titles to a male. When colleges looked at my record, they didn’t see the fastest girl in Connecticut. They saw a second- or third-place runner."