January 1, Roanoke Swimmer Blasts Spanberger for Scrapping Girls’ Sports Safeguards

Wyatt’s Take

• Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger quietly killed a regulation that would have kept biological males out of girls’ locker rooms and sports teams.
• Former Roanoke College swimmer Lily Mullens says Spanberger chose to side with gender ideology instead of protecting female athletes.
• The decision undoes years of work under Governor Youngkin and leaves Virginia girls without the fair playing field they deserve.

Former Roanoke College swimmer Lily Mullens is speaking out after learning that Governor Abigail Spanberger’s administration quietly withdrew a proposed regulation meant to protect girls-only sports and private spaces.

Mullens and two other female swimmers had formally petitioned the Virginia Board of Health to keep biological males out of women’s athletic teams and locker rooms. The petition gained more than two thousand public comments and moved forward under the previous governor.

“Up until recently, due to Governor Youngkin’s leadership, which was founded in truth, Virginia was making tremendous strides toward finally doing the right thing and protecting females by keeping men out of women’s sports and spaces for good. However, under the new ‘leadership’ of Governor Spanberger, that progress has come to a screeching halt,” Mullens told OutKick.

“By failing to be open with the public about her decision months ago, she is signaling to the people of Virginia that she does not care about the female athletes in this state and she is aware that she is going against what the people want. As a woman herself, I had hoped that she would understand the importance of this issue and the petition I signed a year ago, but I have been proven wrong.”

“As I continue to read about this failure and think about the current state of Virginia, I find myself questioning what kind of leader Spanberger wants to be. As someone with personal experience of what this situation can do to a team, a program, a school, or any person involved, I want to ask her why she would choose to be the type of leader who cowers to gender ideology. The type of leader whom people depend on, only to be let down. The type of leader who allows girls to feel inadequate and defeated, as my teammates and I once did.”

“The truth is, and always will be, that men and women are biologically different. Virginia had a leader who understood this fact and did everything he could to protect women. I am saddened and disappointed to see such hard work thrown away, especially by a woman.”

Mullens and her Roanoke College teammates made national headlines in 2023 after objecting to a transgender student trying to join the women’s swimming team. The student eventually dropped the idea. Mullens later joined former teammate Carter Satterfield and Hungarian Olympian Réka György in pushing for a formal rule change.

The Board of Health approved the effort last August and the Youngkin administration moved the plan forward. After Spanberger took office, the regulatory action was quietly withdrawn on July 30 with no public announcement. The official notice simply stated that the board would not proceed.

György, who competed against biological male Lia Thomas at the 2022 NCAA championships, also condemned the move. She said the experience of sharing a locker room with Thomas convinced her that sex-separated sports and spaces are essential for fairness and safety.

During her campaign, Spanberger defended a case-by-case approach that would let schools and coaches decide whether biological males could compete on girls’ teams. Her office has not commented on the withdrawal of the regulation.

Wyatt Matters

Middle America knows that common sense still matters. Parents in Virginia and across the country expect leaders to stand up for their daughters instead of bowing to radical ideology that erases the simple truth that boys and girls are different.