Meta’s Oversight Board Threatens Women’s Right to Sex-Based Protections

07.11.2024 06:15

Women deserve the right to single-sex sports and private spaces that don’t dissolve the second a male asserts a right to enter. This widely shared view continues to grow in popularity, but a small group of aggressive activists want to bypass public opinion and silence our voices. They have asked Meta’s Oversight Board to ban videos calling out males as male, and the Board agreed it might institute the ban. (READ MORE: Men in Women’s Sports Is Becoming a Major Political Issue)

This is a huge deal. If Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, removes posts criticizing men in women’s spaces, it will seriously undermine a woman’s right to sex-based protections. Public debate has been critical for me in my efforts to protect future female athletes.

My opportunity to compete fairly was taken away by a trans-identifying male at the 2022 NCAA swimming championship. Decades of dedication, from every woman in the pool, were discarded to ensure trophies and recognition could be bestowed on a stronger, larger male.

While this was a painful experience, it led me to share my story and advocate for more protections for women’s sports and spaces. I use social media as an advocacy platform daily to highlight other stories of women standing up against identity-based access in female spaces.

Since I began to share my story, along with other Independent Women’s Forum ambassadors Paula Scanlan and Payton McNabb, 26 states have established sex-based participation requirements for women’s sports. This may not have been possible without social media platforms where we could freely argue that the inclusion of males in women’s sports is unfair and regressive.

Calling men “men” is not just about sports. Amie Ichikawa, Independent Women’s Forum ambassador and founder of WomanIIWoman, advocates on behalf of women incarcerated in California prisons who are forced to live in close quarters with men who self-identify as women. Without the ability to bring awareness to this consequence of the gender ideology movement, these women would not have a voice, and men would quietly take over their prisons while they suffer in silence.

Meta’s Oversight Board says it wants to strike the right balance between permitting robust discussion and removing threats and serious bullying. It’s unreal we have to say this, but calling men “men” isn’t harassment.

Moreover, not everything some people perceive as rude should be removed from the public sphere. If that were the case, we’d never be able to have a conversation about anything. For example, even something as innocuous as posting “I’m pregnant!” could feel hurtful to those who have struggled with fertility. The censorship alternative benefits no one, least of all the women who find themselves in need of reclaiming privacy and fairness.

At the heart of this issue is truth. Meta’s Board isn’t proposing to ban women from standing up for themselves against all men — just those men who “identify as women.” That’s because Meta seems to believe that these particular men are women. But that’s not true.

The Oversight Board should not use its power of censorship to affirm the lie that these males are women. This undermines the experiences of womanhood to appease the feelings of men.

Women exist as biologically distinct from men. If Meta denies this fundamental truth and abolishes the expression of any dissent from the gender ideology movement, it will destabilize our society. I wrote the Meta Oversight Board to stand on the side of truth — and women — and allow us to advocate for fairness and reality.

Riley Gaines is an ambassador with Independent Women’s Forum and a former 12-time All-American swimmer at the University of Kentucky. She is the host of “Gaines for Girls” on OutKick and author of Swimming Against the Current: Fighting for Common Sense in a World That’s Lost its Mind.

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