<p class="wp-block-paragraph">A congressional witness at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on protecting women’s sports stated that claims from the transgender lobby regarding suicide risks are a form of male gaslighting. This hearing took place on September 23, 2026.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">During opening remarks, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) referenced a statistic from the Trevor Project indicating that LGBT youth face a higher risk of suicide due to mistreatment and stigmatization.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“This committee should not participate in that marginalization of any children in this country,” said Durbin. “For these reasons, I refuse to treat this hearing as a responsible exercise of this committee. I will not ask questions. The minority did not call any witnesses.”</p>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img alt="Kim Jones (L), Co-founder of the The Independent Council on Women's Sport (ICONS), and Carly Smolak (C), former goalkeeper for the San Diego Spirit women’s professional soccer team, are sworn-in before testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 23, 2026 in Washington, DC. The Committee met for a heading titled "Standing Up for Women in Sports: Ensuring Opportunity, Fairness and Safety for Female Athletes."" class="wp-image-4739768" height="683" src="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/GettyImages-2296760573.jpg?w=696" width="1024" /><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 23: Kim Jones (L), Co-founder of the The Independent Council on Women’s Sport (ICONS), and Carly Smolak (C), former goalkeeper for the San Diego Spirit women’s professional soccer team, are sworn-in before testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on September 23, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)</figcaption></figure>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Kimberly Jones, co-founder of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, responded to Durbin’s remarks, claiming that denying gender-dysphoric individuals inclusive accommodations, such as allowing men into women’s locker rooms, would increase their suicide risk.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“That is emotional blackmail,” Jones said. “It should never be used against women. It is the age-old story [of men] saying, ‘If you leave, if you don’t do what I say, as a man, I will hurt myself or hurt others.’ Telling women that they have to relinquish their rights, their safety, their fair treatment, in order to accommodate the desires of a man or the comfort of a man, it is abuse of women.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">In her prepared testimony, Jones stated that female athletes who oppose sharing locker rooms with men have been silenced and told to ignore their instinctive reactions to injustice, fear, and discomfort.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“They were emotionally blackmailed and told that the feelings and well-being of a man were more important than their own. That his life depended on their concession,” Jones testified. “This emotional blackmail is no different than the age-old threat that women have always faced when trying to leave abuse.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Jones emphasized that women and young girls should not be held responsible for the mental health burdens of their gender-confused counterparts.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“When we tell our girls that they are more valuable as tools of affirmation, as shields of protection for men, when we tell women that their accomplishments, their desire to win, their hard work and feelings need to be set aside to make a man or a boy feel better, we damage them psychologically,” Jones told the committee.</p>
<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-a-total-ban-on-biological-males">A total ban on biological males</h2>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Jones advocated for a complete ban on biological males from competing in female sports, rather than allowing certain men to compete as women if they are on cross-sex hormones, take testosterone suppression, or undergo feminization surgery.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">She argued that such medication minimally decreases an athlete’s strength but contended that this is not the main issue.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“The postulation of the question is misogynistic,” Jones said. “The idea that an intentionally medicated weakened man is the equivalent of a woman is insulting and degrading to women.”</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">The question of biological advantage, which underpins the existence of sex-segregated sports, was considered by the Supreme Court in two significant transgender sports cases this year, <em>Little v. Hecox and West Virginia v. B.P.J.</em> The broader debate focused on whether medical interventions, such as estrogen injections, reduce the athletic performance gap between men and women.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Feminists argue that equating men’s and women’s physiological factors is regressive. Historically, women were viewed as the weaker sex, but it is now widely recognized that women have distinct developmental paths.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">Jones questioned the criteria for allowing unathletic, elderly, medically ill, or out-of-shape men to compete as women, stating that it creates a slippery slope.</p>
<p class="wp-block-paragraph">“Is a man on chemo allowed to compete against women because he’s sufficiently weak, or he’s 70 or 80, do we now equivocate that?” Jones asked. “That is not an elite female athlete or even a competitive female athlete. That is a man.”</p>