Mom of female swimmer breaks down at Capitol Hill event over trans athlete controversy
WASHINGTON — The mother of an NCAA athlete broke down in tears during a recent Capitol Hill event as she recounted how a male identifying as a female threatened to kill himself if he wasn't allowed on her daughter's team. The woman revealed that her daughter suffered from anxiety due to the ordeal, resulting in her becoming "violently ill" and vomiting all over the bathroom wall.
Cady Mullens is the mother of Lily Mullens, a captain on the Roanoke College NCAA Division III women's swim team. Mullens and several of her teammates pushed back after a male athlete who had previously competed on the men's swim team told school officials he wanted to swim alongside women.
The athlete's mother was one of several participants who spoke during a Tuesday roundtable discussion about Title IX and women's sports led by Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala. Former University of Pennsylvania swimmer Paula Scanlan and former Oberlin College lacrosse coach Kim Russell also spoke at the event.
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Tuberville, a former college football coach, called on coaches and administrators to put their jobs on the line and to stand up for female athletes. Republican Sens. Katie Britt of Alabama, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, and Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi joined for the discussion. Sage Steele, a former ESPN broadcaster, served as the event's moderator.
The event comes amid talks about the Biden administration's Title IX rule change, which could allow male athletes to compete as women by expanding the current civil rights regulations intended to prevent sex discrimination to include gender identity.
Tuberville has voiced his objections to males competing in female sports, including sponsoring the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act.
Cady Mullens said the trans-identifying athlete met with members of the Roanoke College women's swim team in 2023 and said that he would kill himself if he were not allowed to join. School officials allegedly told the female athletes they would face academic and professional consequences if they objected to having a man on their team, according to the mother.
"My daughter and her teammates began to ask whether college swimming was even worth it," Mullens said. "They were acutely aware of the unfairness."
The mother began to cry as she recalled the emotional stress her daughter suffered from having a man on the women's team. Mullens said her daughter loved Roanoke and swimming. When Lily said, "I don't want to be here anymore," her mother understood the severity of the problem.
"'I don't want to have a man at a woman's practice every day in the pool with me,'" Mullens remembered her daughter saying.
"My daughter shared with me that she was so upset and so nervous that she would become so physically ill, so anxious that she would throw up so violently that it would come out of her mouth and her nose and hit the back of the bathroom wall," the mother said, sobbing as she revealed her daughter would tell herself during these moments that she was a "good person."
The female swimmers drew national headlines last October after they held a press conference to speak out against allowing a biological male student to join the team. Along with Lily Mullens, the team captains said that the issue had torn their squad apart, and they felt abandoned by the school administrators.
On Oct. 5, the school released a statement saying that the trans-identified swimmer competed as a first-year student on the men's team and "then took a year off from competition before returning to the sport this season." Before an Oct. 3 meeting of the Roanoke College Board of Trustees to discuss the situation, the student withdrew his request to participate on the women's swim team.
While the female swimmer and her peers ultimately succeeded, Cady Mullens argues that athletes like her daughter should not be the only ones fighting for women's sports.
"It shouldn't be up to the athletes to push back," she said. "What can Congress do to put the responsibility on the schools to protect them?"
Tuberville agreed, saying that coaches, administrators and athletic directors must respond. However, the lawmaker noted that many such individuals are too afraid of losing their jobs to speak up.
According to Tuberville, protecting women's sports is not a Republican versus Democrat problem; it is an "American problem." He expressed disappointment that many lawmakers in Washington prefer to vote with the party line instead of voting for "common sense."
"I've asked the 10 to 12 ladies on the Democratic side that have voted against me consistently about this," Tuberville said. "I've asked them: 'Do you have daughters?' Do you have granddaughters? Do you really believe this?'"
The GOP lawmaker said that his female Democratic colleagues have not answered this question, which he asserted is proof that they do not really believe men who identify as female should be allowed to compete against women. Tuberville also identified coaches and school administrators who refuse to speak out as part of the problem, stating that they "have no guts."
"Step up and do what's right," Tuberville said. "Put their job on the line. If you get fired, you get fired. You stand up for what's right."
