The National Organization for Women (NOW) faced backlash over a social media post responding to a lawsuit against the NCAA over transgender athlete Lia Thomas competing in women’s swimming.
NOW called concerns over equality “white supremacist patriarchy,” prompting accusations that it no longer supports women.
“Repeat after us: Weaponizing womenhood against other women is white supremacist patriarchy at work. Making people believe there isn’t enough space for trans women in sports is white supremacist patriarchy at work,” The National Organization for Women (NOW) wrote.
Critics like athlete Riley Gaines said advocating for fair sports does not make one a white supremacist.
“I’ve never seen so many oppression buzzwords in one sentence. Apparently, advocating for fair sport makes me a white supremacist. I wonder if my attorney will agree. (in case you were wondering, NOW stands for National Organization of Women lol),” Outkick’s Gaines for Girls podcast wrote.
A community note on NOW’s post cited policies barring males who went through puberty from competing against females.
“Transwomen are still able to compete in the category of their birth sex or an Open category, they are not excluded from sport. World Aquatics prohibits anyone who has undergone any part of male puberty from entering the Female category,” the community note read.
Many commenters accused NOW of gaslighting women and abandoning its mission to protect women’s rights.
“Holy crap, the National Organization for Women says wanting women’s sports to be made up of women is ‘white supremacist patriarchy at work,’” OutKick founder Clay Travis wrote.
“You posted this a day early, but I’m RTing on April Fools so people see your joke,” columnist Brad Slager wrote.
“I can’t believe I worked here when I was in college. I’m embarrassed for you. The patriarchy is telling women to sit down and shut up and accept whatever unfairness and invasion of privacy is hurled their way,” former gymnast Jennifer Sey said.
Former Team USA runner Carilyn Johnson said, “When the most prominent women’s rights organization tells women to sit down and shut up so that a group of entitled men can appropriate women’s identities for their own benefit, the group has devolved into a men’s rights organization. Shaming women for speaking out is the very definition of bigoted supremacist patriarchy. Stop gaslighting women.”
“You are such a complete and utter embarrassment,” Women’s Declaration International-USA president Kara Dansky said.
“’White supremacist patriarchy’ I advocate for these things as a mixed race person and I have an immigrant mother. Why is this ALWAYS about race?” Independent Women’s Forum spokesperson Paula Scanlan wrote.
NOW previously supported transgender athletes competing in women’s sports, saying courts view transgender women as women.
