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Pro-trans protesters detained & ejected from NCAA Women’s Final Four

Police were so suspicious of the protesters they questioned them when they left their seats to get drinks and use the arena bathrooms.
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Pro-trans protesters detained & ejected from NCAA Women’s Final Four
Photo: Soulforce

A demonstration in support of transgender students at the NCAA Women’s basketball championship tournament ended with police and arena security intimidating, detaining and ultimately ejecting the pink-clad protesters and threatening to charge them with criminal trespassing — even though each of them had tickets to the game.

The demonstrators were a combined effort by Campus Pride and Soulforce, a nonviolent pro-LGBTQ group, both calling on the NCAA to reject the waivers requested by more than two dozen member schools, for Title IX exemptions. The waivers would grant the Christian-based schools the legal right to discriminate against transgender and pregnant students, through discipline, expulsion, or termination.

“The NCAA still has 30 schools that actively sought the right to discriminate against women, trans, and queer people on their campuses,” said Yaz Mendez Nuñez, Soulforce Programs Director, in an emailed statement. “Those schools are not in line with NCAA values and they are not safe places to host NCAA games.”

The protesters told their story in live tweets and a cellphone video uploaded to YouTube, after arriving Sunday at the Women’s Final Four at the American Airlines Arena in Dallas.

Haven Herrin, the director of Soulforce, whose hometown hosted the tourney, denounced the NCAA for being shortsighted on Title IX protections as well as the non-repeal of North Carolina’s House Bill 2.
That the NCAA has member universities that discriminate against their own students is exactly why it finds itself ensnared in legal battles like the repeal of HB2.
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bathroom bill repeal Campus Pride conservative Christianity conservative Christians Dallas TX HB142 HB2 HB2 repeal efforts House Bill 142 House Bill 2 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA North Carolina Repeal House Bill 2 Title IX

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