Payton McNabb, a senior volleyball player at Hiwassee Dam High School in Murphy, North Carolina, has called on state legislators to pass a bill banning transgender athletes born male from competing on female sports teams.
McNabb suffered a concussion and neck injury in September when a transgender girl spiked a ball into her face during a game.
She told state representatives that the North Carolina High School Athletic Association policy allowing biological males to compete against biological females has changed her life forever, WLOS reported.
McNabb is still grappling with the after-effects of her injuries, which include impaired vision, partial paralysis on the right side of her body, constant headaches, anxiety, and depression.
She claimed that she has also had to request accommodations at school due to her “impaired” ability to understand and retain information.
“I was unable to play the rest of my last volleyball season, and although I’m currently playing softball, I’m not able to perform as well as I know I have in the past because of the injury,” McNabb said.
She emphasized that she was speaking not only for herself but also for other biological female athletes, including her younger sister, cousins, and teammates.
“Allowing biological males to compete against biological females is dangerous. I may be the first to come before you with an injury, but if this doesn’t pass, I won’t be the last,” McNabb warned.
The Republican-controlled North Carolina House has passed the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which would prohibit transgender girls from joining female sports teams in middle school, high school, and college.
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Riley Gaines, a former All-American Kentucky swimmer and teammate of controversial transgender athlete Lia Thomas, also attended the event to support the legislation.
Gaines, who gained national attention for criticizing an NCAA decision allowing Thomas to compete against her in Division I women’s races, tweeted, “Watch the clip of Payton McNabb getting spiked in the face by a male competing with the women. Then watch her testimony she gave today for the first time publicly. I was honored to stand alongside her in NC to continue the fight to protect women’s sports.”
On Wednesday, the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act (H574) passed the North Carolina House with a veto-proof vote of 73-39, with three Democrats voting in favor.
The bill, which aims to separate sports by biological sex based solely on students’ “reproductive biology and genetics at birth,” now moves to the Senate. A competing proposal restricting middle and high school athletes could reach the Senate floor as soon as Thursday.
GOP Rep. Kristin Baker, the bill’s primary sponsor, said, “This bill is a bill to be inclusive, not to be exclusive. This bill is to allow fair and particularly safe, physically safe, competition.”
Democratic Rep. Vernetta Alston criticized the GOP for using a few isolated incidents to inflate the issue, arguing that injuries occur in sports regardless of who participates.
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