Faced Injury and Concussion by a Trans Athlete’s Shot, High School Volleyball Star Sounds Off on Transgender Ban For Schools
After suffering significant injuries when a transgender girl spiked a ball at her, a high school volleyball player in North Carolina petitioned the state legislature to establish a law prohibiting transgender athletes born men from competing on female sports teams.
Payton McNabb, a senior at Hiwassee Dam High School in Murphy, told state senators on Wednesday that a trans athlete’s throw of the ball into her face during a game in September caused her to get a concussion and neck injuries.
nypost.com
McNabb said WLOS reported
"I was severely injured in a high school volleyball game by a transgender athlete on the opposing team."
"I suffered from a concussion and neck injury that to this day I am still recovering from."
Payton McNabb#SaveWomensSports #WarOnWomen https://t.co/16SUrplGqD pic.twitter.com/4CvgShHgvk— Biology Rules Ok (@OkBiology) April 21, 2023
“Due to the North Carolina High School Athletic Association policy allowing biological males to compete against biological females, my life has forever been changed.”
She said that she is currently battling the aftereffects of her injuries, which include eyesight loss, right-side partial paralysis, constant migraines, anxiety, and sadness.
Because of her “impaired” capacity for understanding and remembering information, McNabb asserted that she had also been required to request modifications at the school.
“I was unable to play the rest of my last volleyball season, and although I’m currently playing softball, I’m not able to perform as well as I know I have in the past because of the injury,” she told the legislature.
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“I’m not here for me because I know that my time playing is coming to an end,” McNabb said.
“I’m here for every biological female athlete behind me. My little sister, my cousins, my teammates.”
She added: “Allowing biological males to compete against biological females is dangerous. I may be the first to come before you with an injury, but if this doesn’t pass, I won’t be the last.”
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Riley Gaines, a former All-American swimmer for Kentucky, was also present to advocate for the law. Gaines tweeted: “Watch the clip of Payton McNabb getting spiked in the face by a male competing with the women.
“Then watch her testimony she gave today for the first time publicly. I was honored to stand alongside her in NC to continue the fight to protect women’s sports,” she added.
Gaines previously competed alongside controversial transgender swimmer Lia Thomas for the collegiate women’s swimming team.
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Gaines rose to popularity on the national stage after she denounced the NCAA for allowing Thomas to compete against her in Division I women’s races.
The Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, H574, which forbids transgender girls from participating on female sports teams in middle school, high school, and college, was approved by North Carolina’s Republican-controlled House on Wednesday.
Three Democrats joined the 73-39 veto-proof decision to split sports by biological sex, which was based entirely on pupils’ “reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”
The bill will now proceed to the Senate, where a rival proposal might be discussed as soon as this Thursday.
Only middle school and high school athletes would be subject to restrictions under the Senate bill.
“This bill is a bill to be inclusive, not to be exclusive,” said GOP Rep. Kristin Baker, the bill’s primary sponsor.
“This bill is to allow fair and particularly safe, physically safe, competition.”
Rep. Vernetta Alston, a Democrat, criticized the GOP for exaggerating a few isolated incidences to exaggerate the issue, claiming that accidents occur frequently in sports regardless of who is participating.
Alston warned that the law will further exclude a small and already disadvantaged community, calling it “a pretext for bigotry and part of a larger effort to ban transgender people from living their lives.”
However, Baker maintained that one injury like McNabb’s was excessive.
Post wires are used.
