A former Roanoke College swim captain says she is deeply concerned that next month’s statewide elections in Virginia could have lasting consequences for women’s sports.
Lily Mullens, who captained the Roanoke women’s swim team, told Fox News Digital she and her teammates objected to a transgender student, assigned male at birth, joining the women’s squad. Mullens said those objections were dismissed by administrators and that she later faced retaliation, including being denied opportunities, after speaking out.
Mullens recalled that when she and her teammates raised concerns, college administrators dismissed them, brushing the matter aside. Yet she noted that Republican officials in the state had stepped in to defend them:
“Gov. Youngkin had reached out to the captains and I personally and asked how we were and how things kind of played out. And that was such a huge thing, because not even the president of my school was able to do so,” Mullens told Fox News Digital. “Seeing somebody who’s the leader of an entire state do that and then not have my school president, who’s only overseeing 2,000 people… it’s hard to describe. I was so shocked, and I was grateful at the same time.”
The state of Virginia is gearing up for several consequential statewide elections later this year, including a race for the governor’s seat and for attorney general. Incumbent Gov. Glenn Youngkin has reached his term-limit, so his Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears, was handed the baton to keep the governor’s mansion Republican. She is facing off against former Rep. Abigail Spanberger.
Current Republican Attorney General Jason Miyares is also up for re-election, and is being challenged by Democrat Jay Jones, who is currently dealing with the fallout from resurfaced text messages showing him wishing death upon a Republican colleague.
Miyares’ office concluded in August that Roanoke College had discriminated against the women on its swim team and retaliated against them in violation of the state’s Human Rights Act and Title IX. Roanoke has denied the allegations, calling them “unsubstantiated.”
Mullens maintains the issue is one of fairness, underscoring that biological differences between men and women undermine equity in women’s sports.
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