Betty McCollum, Democrat, lies to people who voted for her

Betty voted to force girls and women to give up their right to sports to males

A letter was written (thought I’d give passive voice a whirl) to Democratic Representative Betty McCollum, full of straight up facts about why girls and women need and deserve their own sports, and urging her to support the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act. The one that passed the House with the support of just two Democrats.

Below is the response from McCollum’s office. I have always liked Betty McCollum. I’ve voted for her since 1992 when she first won a seat in the Minnesota House of Representatives. Back then, she lived up to her name—sensible, smart, pragmatic, trustworthy. This response is none of those things. I’d like to give Betty the benefit of the doubt and say this unhinged, misogynistic manifesto of lies was written by an activist staffer, but the hard truth is it’s got Betty’s signature at the bottom, her stamp of approval. There are two views on men in women’s sports, and they’re not pro-trans versus anti-trans, they’re reality versus belief, right versus wrong. Betty’s response here is wrong. This letter is not only unmoored from any reality, scientific or social, but it does not reflect the stance of the majority of her constituents—67% of Democrats think women should have single-sex sports.

I am insulted that a congressperson would disrespect her constituents by sending out this steaming pile of lies, and enraged that she is blindly falling in line with the Democrats’ allegiance to a dangerous, misogynistic ideology, betraying not only reason but those who voted for her. And yes, I will be sending Betty the following annotated version of this ridiculous mess. Let’s dive in.

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Thank you for contacting me regarding H.R. 28, the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025. I appreciate hearing from you.

H.R. 28 would open the door to invasive surveillance and physical inspections of young women and girls as a condition of their participation in sports.

Jesus wept. Raise your hand if you, or your daughter, or your mom, or your grandmother, or anyone you know has ever had to undergo a genital inspection to participate in sports. Anyone? Ever? If memory serves, a sports physical from the family doctor was and is all that’s required. Since the beginning of time, or at least the last century, including the era that Betty McCollum participated in high school or college sports, women participated in sports without genital inspections. Because it was assumed women’s sports were for biological women. Everyone knew what sex they were back then, just like they do now. The difference is that, back then, women’s boundaries were respected. The reality of sex was respected. Sports officials and legislators were trying to keep men out of women’s sports, not enable them. There have always been men who tried to gatecrash female sports which is why, from the earliest days of women’s Olympic involvement, officials have had to devise ways of keeping men out of women’s sports. THE ONLY REASON SEX VERIFICATION WAS INSTITUTED WAS BECAUSE MEN TRIED TO ILLEGALLY BREACH WOMEN’S BOUNDARIES. IT WAS NOT TO POLICE WOMEN BUT TO POLICE MEN. THAT’S STILL THE ONLY REASON SEX VERIFICATION IS NEEDED FOR WOMEN’S SPORTS. Cheek swabs, a once-in-a-lifetime noninvasive and accurate sex verification screen that female athletes overwhelmingly approved of, were eliminated by the IOC in 2000 because they had already decided to allow trans-identified males into female sports, and cheek swabs would inconveniently expose their astounding, rights-erasing, misogynistic policy. The only people who decry sex verification are those who want to include men in women’s sports. That includes Democrats. They had to invent this insane genital inspection myth to disguise their actual message which is that girls should be forced to give up their right to their own single-sex sports to boys. And they should give up this foundational human right without complaint. Apparently Betty does not think of biological boys taking girls’ opportunities in sports meant for girls as invasive, nor biological boys in the girls’ locker room. Nor removal of basic human rights as females. And there’s the nut, so to speak, of the whole thing—we all know what sex we are. Children know what sex they are. It’s been exhaustively proven, the female category works perfectly fine without any bizarre physical inspections IF women’s rights, based on material reality, are respected. But Democrats don’t respect women’s sex-based rights, so they had to make up a mighty big and picturesque lie to hide that.

Sports should be safe, accessible, and fair for everyone. Participating in sports helps young people develop skills like leadership and teamwork and builds their self-esteem. All children, no matter their gender, should have the opportunity to develop these skills in a supportive community.

An oasis of truth, a speck in this desert of critical thinking. Single-sex sports are fair, safe, accessible, and inclusive of everyone on the planet. Sports can only deliver those benefits if they are single-sex.

Instead, this Republican-led Child Predator Empowerment Act puts the privacy, security, mental health, and physical well-being of young female athletes at risk. H.R. 28 would allow anyone to challenge and target kids with questions about their gender. It would subject minors to deeply personal questions about their bodies and to physical inspections of their genitals by strangers without their parents present.

The heck?! I feel like I’m trying to talk rationally to a four-year-old who’s having a meltdown. Petulantly changing the name of the bill—ha, did you see when we changed the name to the Creepy Pedo Act? An adult did not write that, I can assure you. Dr. Becky has some words of wisdom that apply here. When kids (Democrats) are afraid and making shit up and accusing you of the offenses that they have committed, Dr. Becky says, they really desperately want leadership. They want someone to say here is the reality of the situation, and to set boundaries. Example A would be the Executive Order defending women’s sex-based rights. The supplanting of sex with gender identity, of ideology over reality, has already visited every harm they list on female athletes—loss of privacy, security, mental health (that person you know to be a boy is actually a girl, and if you don’t agree and give up your sports and spaces to this person, you’re a bigot), and physical well-being. The genital inspections are just batshit crazy, don’t know where that came from, but talking a lot to very young children about their bodies and keeping secrets from parents sounds very familiar. This paragraph is so outrageously childish—no, you’re the pedo—it would be embarrassing were it not for the fact that these people are making laws that have already done immeasurable harm.

The reality is that there are already athletic associations that take issues like fairness and safety into account when determining gender-based eligibility guidelines for different sports at different levels of competition. Professional athletic organizing bodies like the International Olympic Committee and National Collegiate Athletic Association have already addressed participation for trans athletes within their respective sports. There is bipartisan recognition of the damaging impact of a complete ban on the participation of transgender children in youth sports, as evidenced by the vetoes issued by Utah Governor Spencer Cox, Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb, and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum in response to similar legislation introduced and passed by their respective legislatures.

The person who drafted this carnival of malevolent ignorance has, unsurprisingly, not kept up-to-date on the latest happenings at the IOC and the NCAA. President of the IOC, Thomas Bach, who loudly defended the indefensible debacle of two men winning gold medals in women’s boxing, will be stepping down in March. Recognizing the existential threat to the organization, all seven candidates have made protecting the female category a central campaign platform. For most of the candidates, that stance is a matter of survival of the organization. Only one, Seb Coe, was committed from the start to ensuring single-sex categories because it’s simply the right thing to do for women. Regardless of who is the next IOC president, the organization’s 25-year failed experiment with allowing men in women’s sports will likely be over. So if Democrats are taking their cues from the IOC, they’re going to have to eat an awful lot of crow, revisit their policies, and this letter.

The NCAA is being sued by female athletes for violation of their Title IX rights. The Texas attorney general is also suing the NCAA for fraudulently selling tickets to an event marketed as women’s sports when, in fact, the NCAA allowed males on those teams. In late 2024, a district court nullified Biden’s upending of Title IX by changing sex to gender identity, restoring its original protection of women’s sports. Trump’s Executive Orders further that protection by saying schools and universities that allow males in female sports will lose federal funding. Between lawsuits, legislation, and Executive Orders, the NCAA is currently “reviewing” its policy of allowing males in female sports. Oh, and the NCAA never took women’s “fairness and inclusion into account.” That’s laughable. Back in 2010, they saw “inclusion” as a lovely human rights cover for the ugly misogyny they can’t seem to shake, so, very quietly, listening only to trans activist voices and aggressively excluding women from the discussion, they slipped this policy into the books. All of the so-called science the NCAA relied on to take into account safety and fairness has been thoroughly debunked, and heaps of legitimate science now confirms allowing biological males in women’s sports is both unsafe and unfair. Not sure why Democrats would want to look to an organization that has violated their female athletes’ Title IX and human rights, has forced them to undress in locker rooms with males, has threatened female athletes if they spoke up, as a beacon of women’s rights.

No state, including the three mentioned above, has even suggested a “complete ban on the participation of transgender children in youth sports.” Gratuitous lying is insulting to constituents, and results in them disbelieving anything else you say. Twenty-six states allow students to participate in sports according to their birth sex. Twenty-four states have given away girls’ right to single-sex sports and locker rooms to males. No one anywhere is banned from sports. Sorry Betty, this is base fearmongering.

If we want to take action in this Congress to truly support female athletes and women’s sports, then we could address issues like equal pay, ending institutional mistreatment of female athletes, and broadening opportunities for participation for historically excluded communities. We could work to protect athletes from sexual abuse, instead of taking up a bill that creates new conditions that predators can exploit. The majority of athlete sexual assault cases involve coaches, trainers, or other sports administrators, who could be inspecting young women and girls under this law.

It’s not either or, you morons. Yes, why haven’t Democrats taken up issues like equal pay for female athletes and ending institutional mistreatment of female athletes (see above explanation of institutional mistreatment of female athletes by the IOC and the NCAA)? Please detail the historically excluded communities. Would those be men excluded from women’s sports? I can’t think of another excluded community, except perhaps 35-year-olds from the U14 category. What has kept you from protecting female athletes from sexual abuse, such as the NCAA forcing women to undress with fully intact males? Those major sexual assault cases you refer to were only adjudicated based on the actual sex of the offender. Not his gender identity. And these cases were all male perpetrators. Sorry friends, you are supporting rapists. To be clear, those rapists are still male even after they declare they are transgender. Allowing males in female sports is allowing sexual harassment.

The enforcement of H.R. 28 would cause lasting damage to student athletes and to school-based athletics, all while isolating and stigmatizing transgender and intersex youth. I voted against this deeply misguided bill when it passed the House on a vote of 218-206.

You, Betty, you are abusing women and girls. You know that. You have not lost your fucking mind. You know this is wrong. You know boys are not girls. It is awkward because you’ve gifted reality to a truly repugnant fail of a human, but that’s on you. You doomed our country because you would not admit this ideology is stupid and dangerous. And you are doubling down, sending out steaming piles of waste like this to people who voted for you, FFS. Insult on top of insult. YOU LOST. THIS IS WHY. LEARN SOMETHING.

Thank you again for contacting me.

Sincerely,

Betty McCollum
Member of Congress