Title IX for the Win!🏀
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Season 2: Episode 129 Description
In today's episode: 🏀 We’re celebrating the 50th anniversary of Title IX: a law Congress passed in 1972 to ensure equal opportunities in school sports for kids of all genders.📗 Title IX didn’t automatically create equality for all genders, so we invited award-winning author Lucy Bledsoe to join us in the studio to talk about her book ‘No Stopping Us Now,' and how it was inspired by her own childhood. And, test your WNBA knowledge on today's Trivia on the Ten.✅
Sources
Equality, sports, and Title IX - Erin Buzuvis and Kristine Newhall - YouTube
WNBA Facts: 25 Surprising Finds You've Got to See (queenballers.club)
WNBA Teams - WNBA.com - Official Site of the WNBA
Links
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TRANSCRIPT:
Ryan Willard 0:01
Welcome back, Ten'ers, Bryan Willard here and you are about to witness the final point in the final game of the final match here at the Ten News Table Tennis Championships. You might call it ping pong, but we call it a fierce competition. Our host Bethany van Delft is facing off against our editor Pete Musto. Bethany leads 10 points tonight and we're playing to 11.
Pete Musto 0:21
You're going down, Bethany.
Bethany Van Delft 0:23
Not today, this is my house. And you're just the guest.
Ryan Willard 0:27
Pete serves it to Bethany and she returns it without hesitation. Pete is on the attack. Got some great shots in but this is a must-win point for Musto. Bethany winds up and slammed it down the line, wins!
Pete Musto 0:45
Oh, I didn't lose to a single boy and sleepaway camp. How did you beat me?
Bethany Van Delft 0:50
Well, Pete, maybe you should play against more girls. And you owe me an ice cream sandwich. By the way.
Pete Musto 0:58
All right. All right.
Ryan Willard 1:00
Bethany Van Delft is our reigning champion, reminding everyone that gender doesn't matter when it comes to who's better at sports.
Bethany Van Delft 1:06
That's right. And today, we're celebrating Title IX, the law that says just that. I'm Bethany Van Delft. It's Thursday, June 23rd. And this is the Ten News.
Various Voices 1:20
10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
Bethany Van Delft 1:28
It's the 50th anniversary of Title IX. What's that, you said? What is Title IX? Well, it's a law Congress passed in 1972 to ensure equal opportunities in school sports for kids of all genders. Here's what it officially says. No person in the United States shall on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in be denied the benefits of or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. This sounds like it should be pretty obvious, right? Yep. Everyone should have the chance to play sports or do school activities, no matter if they're a boy or girl or non binary. But when the law was passed, that wasn't the case why? There were very few girls sports teams at schools. And they often had to provide their own equipment and uniforms. That's unbelievable. Boys teams got a lot more support, and that's discrimination. The slogan for Title IX was give women a sporting chance in it did. Once Title IX became law schools had to provide the same level of equipment supplies, coaching staff, practice spaces, and scheduled games for boys and girls teams. glut didn't require that schools immediately create the same number of sports teams for girls, because they knew it would take a little time to get programs running. Instead, they asked schools to give girls proportional access to sports. So if 50% of the students were girls, they needed 50% of the access to sports teams. Or they could add new sports for girls on a regular basis. Another option is for schools to just ask girls what sports they're interested in. And then make sure to program the sports girls want to play. Now we're talking. So the main places Title IX affects our schools and colleges. But any educational institution that gets government funding has to comply with Title Nine. So it also affects libraries, museums, and vocational schools. If your library hosts the boys-only reading club, they legally have to offer one for girls as well. Excellent. Of course, just because it's a lot doesn't mean everyone follows the law. As a student, you can keep an eye on your school to make sure there's no gender-based discrimination in sports or other activities. Title IX didn't automatically create equality for all genders. People still had to fight for their rights under the law, which is exactly what the main character of the book no stopping us now does. We invited award-winning author Lucy Bledsoe to join us in the studio to talk about her book and how it was inspired by her own childhood.
Ryan Willard 4:23
What is up, Ten'ers? Ryan Willard here and I am thrilled because we have an award-winning author. So I want to know first of all, who are you? Where are you from? And what do you do?
Lucy Jane Bledsoe 4:34
I am Lucy Jane Bledsoe. I am from Portland, Oregon. And I write stories. So I take things that are important to me and find ways to put them out in the world in a story form.
Ryan Willard 4:46
Now you have a new book coming out. It's called No Stopping Us. What is that about?
Lucy Jane Bledsoe 4:51
Um, I often write from my imagination, but this story is my true story. I wrote it as a novel and we can talk about why later, if we want, but it's a true story that happened to me when I was 17 years old. I grew up as I said, in Portland, Oregon, and I badly wanted to play a team sport, I had older brothers, I had a grandfather who was a football coach and we spent all of our summers at the baseball diamonds watching my brothers games, all of our winters in the basketball court watching their basketball games that I loved those evenings. But I wanted to be on the court and I wanted to be on the field, and I wanted to play ball. So when I was 17, I found out that there was a law that had just been passed a couple of years prior, that said, girls and boys had equal rights to the same activities in schools. And that meant that I had a right to have a basketball team in my school, even though there wasn't one. So I started working towards that. And this book is about my finding my voice, getting a basketball team for all the girls in Portland, Oregon. And, honestly, a lot of the blowback that happened while I was doing that.
Ryan Willard 6:03
I've noticed in your work, you have really diverse characters that you do bring out and you represent a lot of different people. What do they represent to you? And why is it important to lift those voices up?
Lucy Jane Bledsoe 6:17
Yes, it's so important to me. Well, I live in a community that's very diverse, a lot of different genders and colors and cultures. And that's the world I live in. And that's the world I want to show, especially in this book, because for me this story of, of getting to play basketball, in a way had very little to do with basketball, I wanted that sisterhood of a team. Growing up playing on teams, eventually, when I got to have them, I don't think I've had any better life experiences that I had, being on a team of a very diverse group of girls, Asian American girls, black girls, white girls, all playing together toward a common goal towards excellence, that coming together was just an enormous life experience. That changed me and showed me so much about love and compassion and cooperation and working together with all kinds of people. And so that's really what the book is about. So it was really important to me to show that. I love that.
Ryan Willard 7:17
That's wonderful. What kind of advice would you want to give to the younger generation of how to navigate through that at such a young age? And when you're learning about it, or not learning about it, or discovering things about yourself?
Lucy Jane Bledsoe 7:30
Yeah, that is such a good question. And it is so the same and so different. One thing I'm doing with this new book, no stopping us now is I'm doing several events in conversation with younger women. In Berkeley, I'm going to do one with a, an event with a 17-year-old black trans girl who's a friend of our family. And we're just going to talk about the differences between now and then. In some ways, it's easier to be out as an LGBTQ person now. Because there's a lot of acceptance. And sometimes in some ways, it's harder, because there's this assumption that, hey, everybody's over that there's no problems now, but there are a lot of obstacles and a lot of difficulties. And a lot of, frankly, hate still out there. So I guess my advice would be, and one thing that happens in this story that I tell is, I found allies. Um, in my story, one of my biggest allies turned out to be the boy, the boys football coach, you know, he's this big, round white guy with a crooked and a red face. And he was the last person I expected to support what I was trying to do, which is get equality for girls in my high school. And he was amazing. So finding allies, people who will support you, listening to their voices, not to the hateful voices, is one piece of advice. Another piece of advice I would give is, look for the small steps. We get to new places with a lot of small steps, rather than great big lunges. And that's hard to for any of us to deal with. Because who wants to do small steps we want to get there all at once.
Ryan Willard 8:59
Small steps. I like that. Lucy, thank you so much for joining us. Your book, No Stopping Us Now just came out on April 26th. I cannot wait to read it. Thank you again for joining us.
Bethany Van Delft 9:09
Thank you so much. Thanks, Ryan and Lucy. I cannot wait to read about Luisa and her courage to stand up and fight back. And we're so lucky to get an early review of Lucy's book from our 17-year-old friend, Justice.
Justice 9:24
My name is Justice. I am a 17-year-old woman, with a transgender experience. And here's my review of No Stopping Us Now. This book is such an amazing book I resonate with the feeling of fighting for rights due to the fact that I, in sixth grade, had to fight to be on the girl’s volleyball team and I fought for three years until eighth grade. I was able to play on the volleyball team and I believe that every woman, especially trans women should read this because it gives you a feeling of empowerment and also a feeling of strength due to the advocacy, the community, and just how everyone is so loving supporting, yet, there are some challenges and setbacks.
Bethany Van Delft 10:21
Thank you so much for your insight, Justice. And now for your...
Various Voices 10:25
What, what, what's the big idea?
Bethany Van Delft 10:31
Trivia on the Ten. More girls playing sports at school leads to more women in professional sports like the WNBA. But, do you know how many teams are in the WNBA? Is it a) 10 b) 12 or c) 16? Did you guess it? The answer is B. When the WNBA was first started in 1997, there were 8 teams and now there are 12. They are Chicago Sky, Connecticut Sun, Indiana Fever, New York Liberty, Washington Mystics, Dallas Wings, Las Vegas Aces, Los Angeles Sparks, Minnesota Lynx, Phoenix Mercury, and Seattle Storm. This season is well underway, so be sure to watch some WNBA games this summer. That's our show. Before we go here's a quick note for the grownups. Thanks for listening to the Ten News. Look up our new episodes on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and extras on Saturdays. The Ten News is a coproduction of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter Podcasts and is distributed by iHeartRadio. The Ten News creative team is dunking on each other and includes Tracey Crooks, Pete Musto, Ryan Willard, Adam Barnard, and Tessa Flannery. Our production director is Jeremiah Tittle and our executive producers are Donald Albright and show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan. I'm Bethany Van Delft and thanks for listening to the Ten News. Alright, who's gonna play me next? No one?
