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Members of the Roanoke College swim team appeared on stage at a rally in support of former President Donald Trump in Salem on Saturday, reviving a controversy that gripped the sport and the college over a year ago.
In a move that surprised many, Trump invited members of the swim team to the stage after he brought up a 2023 controversy that arose on the campus after a trans woman athlete who formerly swam on the men’s team requested to join the women’s swim team. The seven team members on the stage on Saturday wore pink shirts that read “Keep [image of a hotdog] out of women’s sports.”
“We know that men have an inherent advantage over women in sports and due to current policies, men are competing against women of all ages in all sports,” Lily Mullens, the team captain, told the crowd.
Mullens, an Ohio native and senior at the college, called the presence of trans women in competitive sports “anti-women” and “sex-based discrimination.” Mullens, a co-captain at the time, was at the center of the 2023 controversy.
Roughly 34 college athletes out of more than 500,000 identified as transgender in 2023, according to the ACLU of Ohio.
The controversy and the college’s response to Saturday’s rally
The trans woman’s request to join the Roanoke College women’s swim team in 2023 led to almost-daily meetings between both the women’s and men’s teams, swim staff and school administration, as well as the trans athlete, who has not been publicly named.
One of those meetings included members of both squads who voted in an online poll on whether the trans woman swimmer should be allowed to compete, while the athlete was in the room, according to team co-captain Kate Pearson.
In the end, the trans woman withdrew her request to swim on the women’s team.
Frank Shushok, president of Roanoke College, released a statement Saturday evening that said the administration was unaware of the team members’ participation at Saturday’s rally. What they shared on stage, he said, represents only their individual points of view.
Shushok said that the team members exercised their right to free speech and noted that Roanoke College students, including those with diverse political perspectives and those with LGBTQ+ identities, are gifts to the college community and are deeply valued.
“In this moment, we can turn against each other and ignite division, thereby adding to the bounty of suffering already too prevalent in our world. However, in my time at Roanoke College, I’ve been inspired by what I’ve seen repeatedly: People who take the road less traveled and aspire to the highest virtues of love, humility, respect and kindness,” he said. “This is who we are at Roanoke College, and this is why, as an affiliated member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), we are rooted and open.”
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