transgender

Payton McNabb, Injured Volleyball Player, Wins Title IX Victory

Payton McNabb, who was severely injured in a high school girls volleyball game by a male student, won a Title IX victory after encountering a transgender-identified male in a women’s restroom at Western Carolina University.

She posted a video of the man leaving the women’s room on X, which led to the Title IX complaint.

The incident also led to McNabb’s expulsion from the Delta Zeta Sorority she had joined at WCU. The sorority said she violated its “anti-bullying policy” with “conduct which is prejudicial to the Sorority, tending to bring it into disrepute.”

The Daily Citizen connected with McNabb, who told us about the importance of this recent victory for girls and women,

This Title IX case is yet another piece of my story that proves gender ideology will not prevail. The truth wins. Most importantly, this civil rights investigation victory showcases that women do not need to sit there and take it – they do not need to accept men in their spaces, sports or intimate and private spaces.

She added, “I hope it gives other collegiate women the courage to stand up for themselves.”

Independent Women’s Features, a project of Independent Women’s Forum, explained how the kerfuffle with the man in the ladies’ room unfolded.

“McNabb confronted the male for making her feel uncomfortable in a vulnerable and private space, and subsequently expressed her First Amendment rights by posting a video of the ‘unreal’ encounter on X.”

IWF said that seeing the man leaving a private women’s space left McNabb feeling “bewildered and alarmed,” adding,

“As she tried to sort through emotions in her head in the heat of the moment, McNabb said she reflected on how young girls come in and out of that bathroom regularly during field trips to WCU’s public campus, and said she decided to question the male because she had no way of knowing his intentions.”

She asked the man, “Why are you in the girls’ bathroom?”

He responded, “Because I’m a trans girl.”

McNabb responded, “But you’re not a girl. … I pay a lot of money to be safe in the bathroom.”

The transgender-identifying man then filed a Title IX complaint with the university.

IWF writes, “McNabb won the campus Title IX case – a victory that is not only a personal triumph for McNabb, but also one with far-reaching implications in the ongoing legal battle over sex-based rights and the future of Title IX. “

McNabb first made headlines in September 2022, after receiving a severe head and neck injury when a male player spiked a ball so hard it knocked Payton out. She was 17 years old, a junior in high school. The injury left her concussed with a traumatic brain injury, partial paralysis and vision problems.

She still struggles with medical issues caused by the injury, as posted on X,

Being knocked out by a male player transformed McNabb into an activist. She’s an ambassador with Independent Women’s Forum, “advocating to protect girls’ and women’s sports while pursuing her bachelor’s degree.” 

First lady Melania Trump invited McNabb to be a special guest at President Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress on March 6, 2025, praising her because she “has made it her mission to put an end to this brutal unfairness.”

McNabb told us, “It was an incredible honor to attend President Trump’s Joint Session Address to Congress as one of the President and First Lady’s special guests. I was so excited to be there, to sit next to the Second Lady, and it’s a night I will never forget.”

She also excoriated those who blocked a federal bill to protect women’s sports, and told us she has been targeted by activists after attending the speech,

I have received significant pushback since I attended the address. My story is a testament to the real physical threat men in women’s sports pose, which is why it is no surprise that radical activists are now trying to discredit my story.

Brave women like McNabb, who stand for truth about biological reality and for fairness for girls and women, deserve our prayers and support. We’re asking God to heal her and to protect her as she fights to save women’s sports and battles for women’s safety and privacy in sex-segregated spaces.

Related Articles and Resources:

International Women’s Features: Payton McNabb Prevails in Title IX Case As Legal Fights Over Sex Definitions Heat Up

‘Everyday Americans’ Honored at Address to Congress

Gaines, Women’s Rights Groups Support Women Appealing Case of Man Joining Sorority  

Male and Female Biology Matters

Trump Signs Executive Order Protecting Women’s Sports and Spaces

Senate Democrats Block Bill to Save Women’s Sports

Sorority Members Old and New, Feminists, Riley Gaines Band Together to Protect Women’s Spaces

What’s Your School District’s ‘Transgender’ Policy?

Yet Another Man Steals Women’s Trophies

Image credit: Payton McNabb / Independent Women’s Forum

Representative Speaks Truth, Congressional Record Edits Her, Then Retracts

While chairing the congressional House floor on last month, Representative Mary Miller officially referred to Representative Sarah McBride as “Mr. McBride” and “the gentleman from Delaware.”

Why would Rep. Miller make such a blatant mistake?

Well, because it wasn’t a mistake.

Rep. Miller was merely speaking truth and doing so boldly. The kind of confident honesty that more people need to speak.

Rep. McBride is a man. But he is celebrated by some as the “first openly transgender” member of Congress.

Tim McBride announced in his college newspaper on Tuesday, May 1, 2012, “Starting on Saturday, I will present as my true self” and asked everyone to start using “female pronouns (she/her) and [his] chosen name, Sarah.” It was then, as he explained, that he “re-imagined” himself “as a girl.”

This is not how male and female work.

Rep. Miller knew this when she correctly referred to McBride as a man on the House floor, demonstrating bravely that she simply refuses to live by lies or illusion.

It is time everyone stops pretending gender redefinition is normal. We must resist it at every turn, refusing to act as if speaking falsehoods is kind and compassionate. It is not. We must be like Rep. Miller and simply refuse to cooperate in any part of this lie.

Congressional Record “Corrects” Miller, Then Retracts

Rep. Miller took to X to complain that the Congressional Record, the formal recorder of what is officially spoken in Congress, changed her correct words to the false “gentlewoman” and “Ms.”

Miller explained, “This is absolutely appalling and a blatant disregard for the truth I have spoken. The Congressional Record is an official publication and should accurately reflect my words. I refuse to participate in this lie. Tim “Sarah” McBride is a MAN!”

Thankfully the Congressional Record corrected the error.

The Daily Citizen strongly salutes Rep. Miller’s courageous clarity. We will continue to hold up and celebrate examples of honorable citizens and community leaders who demonstrate clear thinking, common sense and moral courage in the face of reality-denying gender ideology.

Additional Articles and Resources

How to Respond to “Trans” and Gender Ideology? Simple: Live Not by Lies

‘Transgender Means Many Different Things’ — And Nothing

Transgenderism and Minors: What Does the Research Really Show?

Parents Fight Back Against California School District’s Secret LGBT Clubs

What Does it Mean to Be Trans, Anyway?

The Shifting Ground of ‘Gender-Affirming Care’

Do Not Fall for the ‘Affirm Them or They Will Die’ Lie

How the “Trans” and Gender Redefinition Issue Attacks the Family

Image from Getty.

It’s Weak Men Who Try to Compete Against Strong Women

If it’s still inconceivable that 45 senators voted against a bill protecting girls and women from getting pummeled by boys and men on the field, court, track or in the pool, consider yourself in a good place.

It brings to mind an old story about legendary FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. At one point in his career, he was encouraged to better understand the mind of a criminal. As the logic went, if one gets inside the head of a delinquent, they’ll more likely spot both the offense and offender. Only the pugnacious chief law enforcer of the famed bureau would have nothing of it. 

“When I begin to understand the mind of a criminal, that’s when you can begin to worry about me,” he said.

Whether driven by raw partisanship, intense hatred of the president, or a blinded and distorted sense of reality, support for allowing men to compete against women is tantamount to voting for inevitable abuse.

Fortunately, there is some evidence that some longtime support for the “trans” movement is flailing a bit.

California Governor Gavin Newsom broke this week with his liberal friends when he told popular podcaster Charlie Kirk, who strongly opposes men competing against women, “I think it’s an issue of fairness, I completely agree with you on that. It is an issue of fairness. It’s deeply unfair.”

Both Newsom and Kirk – along with nearly 80% of Americans – are right. But it’s not only unfair. It’s wicked, deranged, manipulative – and evidence of male bullies looking to cheat, steal and claim credit for trophies and titles that rightfully belong to female athletes.

Scan the stories of men pretending to be women athletes and you’ll find a familiar thread and theme – weak men looking for glory they’d never find if they were competing against other men. In most instances, a man who crushes female competition would be middle of the pack (or lower) if competing against fellow male athletes.

At the risk of stating the obvious, this is because men, on average, are physically stronger than women. From lung function and cardiovascular fitness to jumping, lifting and lean body mass, males have distinct competitive advantages over women. 

Only groups like the ACLU won’t admit it and instead trade in all types of distortions and doublespeak to try and suggest otherwise.

In a piece distributed back in 2020 attempting to “debunk” supposed myths about trans athletes, the group made the following statements:

“Including trans athletes will benefit everyone.” They go on to claim that prohibiting men from competing against women “invites gender policing that could subject any woman to invasive tests or accusations of being ‘too masculine’ or ‘too good’ at their sport to be a ‘real’ woman.”

Not surprisingly, they never quote any female athletes.

The ACLU goes on to claim men don’t have any advantage against women and that men claiming to be women are actually women. They seem to embrace the belief that if you repeat a lie long enough it will somehow eventually come true.

Discerning readers and culture watchers know there is no such thing as a “transwoman” or a “transman.” There are only two genders, male and female (Genesis 1:27).

We pray that despite the legislative setback earlier this week, the tide of popular opinion, aided by President Trump’s executive action, will help to re-normalize and give momentum to a common sense revolution concerning the distinctives between male and female athletes.  

Image from Getty.

The Most Important Truth in Trump’s Joint Speech to Congress Last Night

In his joint address to Congress last night, President Trump said many important things that have massive implications. The most consequential thing for our age is when he declared for America, “Our message to every child in America is that you are perfect exactly the way God made you.”

That was undergirded by this foundational human truth, “I signed an order making it the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female.”

To this, he added, America will be “forever ending the lie that any child is trapped in the wrong body.” He noted, “This is a big lie.”

He is correct. You can see this short segment of his speech here:

These statements by President Trump were his most important utterances all evening because they are strong, truthful corrections to demonic lies that have infiltrated so much of our culture and too many of our children today. And they came forcefully and unapologetically from the leader of the free world. That is no small thing.

This is more than a vibe shift. It is a major shift toward the essential truth of the goodness of God, what it means to be human and why the family matters in the world today.


President Trump told the world last night that God’s image in each one of us as male and female is a treasured gift. It is something to be valued and protected in each child. The culture has been telling our children that God plays tricks on them by putting them in the wrong body. Too many youth now believe their feelings are more true than God’s very good design.

President Trump also said it is now the policy of the United States that there are only two sexes, male and female. This is not just some “own-the-libs” angle on an ideological, culture war skirmish. It corrects a very damaging anti-scientific and godless view of what it means to be human. We cannot define humanity nor the human person if we do not know what male and female are.

Likewise, we cannot speak sensibly about the family if we cannot speak truthfully about male and female. This fact is of utmost importance to us here at Focus on the Family because we are a family advocacy organization founded on and defended by a Christian worldview.

Why does this matter?

One of the first facts of creation is that male and female are a part of the very image and likeness of God in creation.

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27).

No other part of God’s vast creation holds this divine distinction. No Christian can miss this truth: Attacks on the nature of male and female are nothing less than attacks on the very image and likeness of God. Every Christian must therefore be passionate about defending the image and likeness of God. They must be passionate about defending the truth and beauty of male and female.

It is very clear. Christians have no real choice but to be fierce defenders of what it means to be woman and man, girl and boy, male and female.

It is the truth, beauty and wonder of male and female that creates each family. Reader, you exist, regardless of your belief system, culture, or worldview, because you are the fruit of a male and female union, hopefully from a married mother and father. This is the first universal truth about humanity that all cultures celebrate. It is what we honor at every birthday celebration.

The confusion this pernicious gender ideology has foisted upon the world challenges each of these beautiful truths. Donald Trump is the first major world leader to surgically attack so many of these deceptively destructive lies, and to do so forcefully.

Feel however you might about his other policies and practices; he is to be praised for his bold, truthful leadership.

Additional Resources

Why Focus on the Family Cares About the Gender Issue?

Yes, Sexuality and Gender Are Undeniable Gospel Issues

New Gallup Poll Shows the Incoherence of ‘LGBTQ+’ Fiction

Here’s What Happens When Good People Don’t Connect Gay and Trans Ideology

What Does it Mean to Be Trans, Anyway?

Why Christians Can’t Avoid the “Trans” and Gender Redefinition Issue

How the “Trans” and Gender Redefinition Issue Attacks the Family

Why the ‘LGBT Person’ and ‘LGBT Community’ Don’t Really Exist

How to Respond to “Trans” and Gender Ideology? Simple: Live Not by Lies

How the Binary in ‘LGBTQ+’ Reveals Its Utter Incoherence

Image from Getty.

‘Transgender’ Employee’s Lawsuit Against Liberty University Moves Forward

A federal court ruled that a sex discrimination lawsuit against Liberty University can move forward. The school fired a transgender-identified employee who violated the university’s Christian beliefs about sex and sexuality.

The former employee, Jonathan Zinski, who now goes by the name Ellenor, believes, “You can be transgender and Christian. I am.”

Zinski started taking female hormones even before he was hired by the Christian school and agreed to Liberty’s doctrinal position which states that “denial of birth sex by self-identification with a different gender” is a sinful act “prohibited by God.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia and Butler Curwood, PLC filed a lawsuit on behalf of Zinski, alleging the school violated his Title VII employment rights.

ACLU of Virginia Senior Transgender Attorney Wyatt Rolla, who was born female but is transgender-identified, said in a statement:

No one should be fired because of who they are, but Liberty University made it clear that’s exactly why it fired Ellenor. It’s no surprise the judge ruled our case can move forward. Workplace discrimination against transgender people is against the law – no matter your religious beliefs.

Liberty Counsel, a Christian legal aid nonprofit, is representing the school. Founder and Chairman Matt Staver sharply disagreed.

“Liberty University has the right under the First Amendment and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act to uphold its sincere Christian religious beliefs and require its employees to do the same. Jonathan Zinski intentionally and deceptively set up Liberty University in an attempt to undermine its religious beliefs and mission.”

Zinski’s lawsuit states he was hired to work at the university’s IT Helpdesk in February 2023. Four months later, Zinski told the school’s Human Resources Department that he “identified as a trans woman, had been undergoing hormone replacement therapy (HRT), and intended to legally change [his] name from Jonathan to Ellenor soon.”

According to Liberty Counsel, when Zinski was first hired, he “agreed to adhere to the university’s doctrinal position regarding the biblical understanding of gender.”

But he was violating that agreement even before working for the school, as Liberty Counsel explained:

When Zinski was hired, he acknowledged and affirmed the doctrinal statement, but then as soon as his 90-day probation period expired, he revealed he had begun taking female hormones four months before he was hired, and that he planned to “identify” as female. Zinski set up this case when he applied to be hired.

Despite the fact that Zinski signed the belief statement while already on opposite sex hormones, the ACLU of Virginia claimed, “Ellenor is a devout Christian who is committed to Liberty’s mission of ‘preaching Christ,’” adding,

“Today she is an active member of her local church, Trinity Episcopal, whose pastor fully supported her transition, even providing gender-affirming clothing.”

In his opinion allowing the case to go forward, U.S. District Judge Norman K. Moon for the Western District Of Virginia relied on the U.S. Supreme Court’s Bostock decision, writing, “Sex is the criterion at issue here. In Bostock v. Clayton Cnty., Ga., the Supreme Court of the United States held that the term ‘sex’ as used in Title VII encompasses sexual orientation and transgender status.”

When Congress passed that act, Americans understood that “sex” meant being male or female – not homosexuality or transgenderism. These identities, based on a person’s thoughts, feelings and behaviors, are now viewed as an intrinsic part of human identity. As Rolla stated, it’s “who they are.”

Judge Moon opined that it didn’t matter what Congress meant when it passed the Civil Rights Act, saying, “Words change with time, thereby placing prior Congresses’ views of the present situation beyond our reach.” 

One wonders if the meaning of other words has “changed with time,” such as those in the Bill of Rights’ First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

While religious non-profit organizations, like Liberty University, typically have a ministerial exemption based on the First Amendment, the judge found “that it does not apply in this case,” adding, “Zinski was not a minister under any formula. The ministerial exception does not provide an affirmative defense to liability at this stage of litigation.”

When the Supreme Court redefined “sex” in Bostock to mean something it had never meant before, Justice Samuel Alito, in his dissent, harshly rebuked the majority opinion at every turn:

The arrogance of this argument is breathtaking. … The Court’s argument is not only arrogant, it is wrong, it fails on its own terms. “Sex,” “sexual orientation,” and “gender identity” are different concepts, as the Court concedes. …
Without strong evidence to the contrary (and there is none here), our job is to ascertain and apply the “ordinary meaning” of the statute. And in 1964, ordinary Americans most certainly would not have understood Title VII to ban discrimination because of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Liberty Counsel said it will appeal the case, arguing “that federal law protects religious institutions to uphold their sincere Christian beliefs and to employ those who are aligned with its religious mission and beliefs.”

Let’s pray they prevail, as Zinski v. Liberty University has important implications for churches, religious schools and ministries. The Daily Citizen will keep you updated as the case moves through higher courts.

Related articles and resources:

The Bostock Slippery Slope: Girls Who Think They’re Boys Must Be Allowed to Use High School Boys’ Restroom, Appeals Court Rules

EEOC Releases Major Guidance Ending Many Workplace Protections for Women

Federal Judge Blocks Administration’s Attempt to Impose Gender Ideology on Employers, Healthcare Providers

Federal Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Attacking Faith-based Schools

New Post-Bostock Lawsuit Would Force Doctors to Perform ‘Gender-Transition’ Surgeries Against Their Medical Judgment

‘Not Only Arrogant, But Wrong’: Justice Alito Slams SCOTUS Majority for Redefining ‘Sex’

President Trump: ‘There are Only Two Genders: Male and Female’

Politicians and Religious Conservatives React to Landmark SCOTUS Ruling on Employment Discrimination

Image from Shutterstock.