Bridges And Serrano Pull No Punches To Protect Women’s Sports
As Bounding Into Sports recently reported, USA Boxing has announced a new “transgender policy” that allows biological males to compete against women in a combat sport. While there are some conditions on eligibility, the main, horrible point remains: the U.S. governing body for Olympic competition is now OK with men hitting women.
This must please Ray Rice.
The move faced vehement opposition from some of the most outspoken voices for protecting women’s rights and women’s sports, including Riley Gaines and Dana Loesch. But now, women’s boxing champions are making their voices heard as well. And those voices are saying, “Hell no!”
Ebanie Bridges And Amanda Serrano Step Into The Ring
Ebanie Bridges and Amanda Serrano have boxing credentials like few others. The Australian Bridges (who goes by the name “Blonde Bomber”) is a former bantamweight champion from 2022-2023 and a two-time Australasian Golden Gloves Winner. Serrano, from Puerto Rico, is the current unified featherweight boxing champion. She is the only woman to win world boxing titles in more than four weight classes and is even in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most boxing titles won in different weight classes (she has held nine titles across seven weight classes).
Neither Bridges nor Serrano are putting up with USA Boxing.
RELATED: Outrage As USA Boxing Changes Rule Book Allowing Biological Males To Fight Women
Her full tweet reads:
This is wrong on so many levels. I will never agree to this… it’s bad enough having trans women breaking records in other sports like track and field, swimming and power lifting but it’s a bit different to them breaking our skulls in combat sports where the aim is to HURT YOU not just break a record…however I think it’s wrong in ALL SPORT… I have nothing against trans but can’t be skewing the line in sport…. You don’t see reference or debates for transmen in sport… cos it’s not a threat… It ain’t just about the test levels what about their bone density and a heap of other biological factors. Cutting ur bits off and adding boobs won’t take back the masculine maturity your body has gone thru before you decided u are now a woman. #ISaidWhatISaid
She rightfully calls out not just the unfairness, but also the inherent danger to women of allowing men to compete in a sport where the objective is inflicting physical pain. She followed up in a RT of her original tweet:
Serrano, likewise, called out the obvious hypocrisy and unfairness inherent in the new rules:
As the example of Fallon Fox demonstrates, allowing this injustice in women’s boxing will definitely result in women getting seriously injured, and possibly even killed.
Other Stars Join The Protest
Bridges and Serrano weren’t the only ones speaking out, by any means, just perhaps the most accomplished. Two-time Olympic champion Clarissa Shields, who has now moved on to MMA fighting, simply expressed her exasperation, “This is idk……. Not the right decision.”
Skateboarder Taylor Silverman — who was forced to compete against men, and has spoken out about men participating in women’s skateboarding events — expressed her appreciation to Bridges for her comments.
RELATED: Badge Of Honor: Riley Gaines Named Problematic Woman Of The Year
Silverman faced backlash from transactivists for her courage, so she knows a little something about bravery … and cowardice.
Boxing journalist Cynthia Conte echoed the sentiments of Bridges and Serrano with one simple word.
Time For It All To Stop
The hashtag #SaveWomensSports trended on Twitter in the wake of Bridges and Serrano’s comments, as it also tends to do whenever Gaines or UPenn swimmer Paula Scanlan speak out against what women are forced to endure.
The solution that many have suggested is that women simply refuse to compete against men until these horrible practices come to an end. It may have to come to that, but that would be a shame since so many of these women work and train for years to compete at the highest level … only to have it stolen from them by mediocre male athletes who are incapable of competing and winning against other men.
But having trans women in female combat sports goes way beyond erasing women and their dreams with unfairness. It is now a direct threat to women’s health and lives.
Here’s hoping that if more brave women like Bridges, Serrano, Shields, Silverman, Gaines, and Scanlan keep speaking out, women won’t have to retreat from sports to be able to compete fairly in them.
