Bus tour celebrating Title IX enforcement hits political potholes in Santa Fe

SANTA FE — The launch of a statewide bus tour touting female athletes drew high-profile political figures and a heated transgender rights protest Monday, a day after event organizers were forced to scramble to come up with an alternative venue.

The “Her Game. Her Legacy” bus tour reignited in the state’s capital city a hot-button issue that’s prompted controversy in collegiate and Olympic sports in recent years.

U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon, in town for a meeting of the Western Governors Association, told a crowd of about 80 people that President Donald Trump’s administration is “putting a stop to the madness” of allowing transgender athletes who were born biologically male to participate in women’s sports.

“As you know, there is a whole movement of gender ideologues who are unable to say what a woman is,” McMahon said during her speech.

She also said the U.S. Department of Education was enforcing compliance with Title IX, a landmark gender inclusion law, by launching civil rights investigations.

However, protesters outside the Inn and Spa at Loretto, the luxury downtown Santa Fe hotel where the bus tour launch was held, pounded on drums and held signs while chanting “Bigots out of Santa Fe,” and “Trans rights are human rights.”

Santa Fe police and private security officers kept a close eye on the roughly 200 protesters, but the protest remained largely peaceful despite a few heated verbal altercations between protesters and passers-by.

Nicki Handler of Santa Fe described the event organizers as Nazis and religious zealots, and said local residents in largely liberal Santa Fe were fundamentally at odds with the event.

“The idea that they’re protecting little girls from trans girls is just preposterous,” Handler told the Journal. “They are just attacking a low-hanging minority.”

The bus tour launch event had initially been scheduled to be held at the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Institute, but was forced to switch locations after the venue announced the contract for the event had been terminated.

In a social media post, the institute said it had “no intention of allowing the event to take place at our facility.”

That prompted criticism from GOP lawmakers and warnings of legal action by Independent Women’s Forum, the Virginia-based nonprofit group that organized the event.

Beth Parlato, the organization’s legal counsel, said Monday the last-minute contract termination represented a clear breach of its terms.

“Everything’s going to be on the table because they did this at the 11th hour,” she told the Journal, referring to the original venue.

She also said it was “100% a lie” the organization had not disclosed the political nature of the event. She said the nonprofit would not jeopardize its tax-exempt status by engaging in political lobbying and “has always been non-political and nonpartisan.”

The launch of the bus tour across New Mexico comes four months after a bill to ban transgender women from participating in female sports was thwarted in a House committee in the state’s Democratic-controlled Legislature.

It also comes on the heels of the 53rd anniversary of Title IX, a federal law passed in 1972 that prohibits gender-based discrimination in any education program or activity that receives federal funding.

Former New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez cited the law during her remarks at the event, saying it represents a promise that girls would have the same rights as boys.

“Fair play isn’t just a slogan, it’s a standard worth protecting,” said Martinez, a Republican who served two terms before stepping down at the end of 2018.

In a subsequent interview, Martinez said she’s not against transgender rights but felt compelled to make sure girls are protected.

“I’m not saying we should ever take away from transgenders, but we shouldn’t take away from the girls either just to make sure they have a space,” she told the Journal.

Martinez also demurred when asked whether she might run again for elected office, saying she did not want to distract from the event’s focus.

“I just don’t want to talk about what I think for myself and what I’m going to do in the future because I don’t want to take that away from them,” she said, as children played foosball and ping pong nearby.

A full schedule for the New Mexico bus tour was not immediately released Monday, but event organizers said they were working to schedule stops in all 33 counties during the coming week.