A female high school volleyball player who was injured while competing against a male player last year testified Tuesday to the mental and physical trauma she’s dealt with since the incident.
Speaking during a committee hearing of the North Carolina legislature, Payton McNabb, a senior at Hiwassee Dam High School in the state, recounted the lingering injuries she’s suffered from since she was struck in the face by a ball that was spiked by a male competitor in a match last September.
“I suffered a concussion and neck injury that to this day I’m still recovering from,” she said. Other injuries she’s still living with include impaired vision and partial paralysis on the right side of her body, she said. McNabb has also experienced anxiety and depression.
On Wednesday, North Carolina lawmakers passed the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which would prohibit male athletes from competing in the female division of school sports. Transgender students can still participate in co-ed sports or those that match the sex they were assigned at birth.
“I was unable to play the rest of my last volleyball season, and although I am currently playing softball, I was not able to perform as well as I have in the past because of the injury,” McNabb said.
She spoke alongside former University of Kentucky star swimmer Riley Gaines, who faced and tied with Lia Thomas — a biological male — at the NCAA championship women’s race.
At a recent talk she delivered at San Francisco State University, Gaines was ambushed and chased by a mob of students. Police had to escort her to safety. In response, the president of San Francisco State published a statement expressing solidarity with the so-called transgender community rather than the victim of the harassment.
“I am here for every biological female behind me. My little sister, my cousins, my teammates,” McNabb said. “Allowing biological males to compete against biological females is dangerous. I may be the first to come before you…but I won’t be the last.”
On Thursday, the House of Representatives advanced a bill that would federally ban male athletes from competing in girl’s sports. The measure would amend federal law so that “sex shall be recognized based solely on a person’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.”
The bill passed due to Republican support, as not a single Democratic member of the chamber voted for it.
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