Save Women’s Sports

Founded by Beth Stelzer, a former amateur powerlifter, this Minnesota-based group says it “seeks to preserve biology-based eligibility standards for participation in female sports.” Stelzer frequently advocates and testifies at legislative hearings using false or baseless claims to encourage bans on trans women and girls from participating in sports on teams aligned with their gender identity.

—In a 2020 op-ed, Stelzer made inaccurate claims about “biological males” and linked to articles making additional false claims about transgender athletes’ eligibility or success in sports. An Associated Press investigation found that lawmakers proposing bans on school sports could not cite a single instance of it being an issue in their states, and college or Olympic athletes have followed all guidelines to be eligible to participate. Use of the term “biological males” is often used by those opposed to transgender people having access to society as their authentic selves, to inaccurately imply that a trans person is not who they say they are. The development of the human body is a complex process, and sex is not solely determined by anatomy, nor is it strictly binary. For example, as many as 1.7% of people are born with an intersex trait.

—Stelzer has testified in state legislatures in favor of bans blocking transgender youth from participating in school sports, including in Arkansas, Montana, South Carolina, and Texas. Her testimony includes broad and inaccurate claims such as “sex is biological.” Sex is primarily associated with physical and physiological features including chromosomes, gene expression, hormone levels, function, anatomy and variation in attributes and in how those attributes are expressed. Selzer’s standard testimony text misgenders transgender girls and women, and she discusses alleged differences between different gender powerlifters, opinions the International Olympic Committee has said should not be presumed as fact, and that are irrelevant to K-12 girls participating in sports. Stelzer’s anecdotes include claims made without evidence that transgender athletes are “taking championships.” An Associated Press investigation found that lawmakers proposing bans on school sports could not cite a single instance of it being an issue in their states.

—In a 2020 op-ed, Stelzer inaccurately claims “there is a strong push to allow men to participate in women’s sports.” Transgender women are women. Stelzer also falsely refers to SB Nation’s Outsports as “extreme” and “fringe.” Outsports focuses on LGBTQ inclusion in sports and follows reporting standards for accuracy as any other sports media outlet, including its reporting on Save Women’s Sports.

—In March, Stelzer held a three-day protest at the NCAA swimming championships against the participation of transgender swimmer Lia Thomas. Thomas followed all requirements to be eligible to participate, became the first known transgender athlete to win a Division I national championship in any college sport, and did not break records held by cisgender women champions.