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- [00:01]
Riley
20 days, one historic move, an unbelievable journey. Melania from Amazon MGM Studios captures the one of a kind transition into the White House. Showcasing the planning, the pressure, and the personal moments that come with stepping into the role of the first lady for a second time. From logistical complexities to decisions made behind closed doors, the film brings you closer to Ms. Trump and her family as they return to the nation's capital, see what history looks like before the doors officially open. But Melania arrives exclusively in theaters January 30th of 2026. Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Gains for Girls podcast. When you think of the gender ideology movement and how it affects sports, you probably think of someone like Leah Thomas, right? Like a very mediocre man swimming on the men's team who ultimately decides to switch to the women's team to become a record smasher. And understandably so. You probably think of this because we have thousands of examples of virtually the same scenario. Every sport, every level, every division, every state, this is happening. But what you probably don't think of is how this adversely affects women in a totally different scenario. Today's guest, she is an activist in her own right, defending the lives of the unborn. But more importantly, she's a mother. Her daughter was faced with a scenario which I am so excited for you guys to hear about today. So make sure you stay and watch the podcast with Brandi Meeks. Well, Brandi, thank you so much for joining the Gains for Girls podcast. We got connected a few weeks ago about an issue that I'm super excited to talk with you about today. This is of course, an issue that's required you to take a firm stance, but this is nothing new to you. So before we get into to all that, I want you to be able to share a little bit about your background as an activist. This in a totally different realm.
- [01:55]
Brandi Meeks
Okay. All right. So it, it is related in some ways, right. But also just very much complimentary. So I am the president of an organization named Vitae foundation and we focus on research about life saving issues. We do emotional research specifically and then we take those findings to create messaging strategies and share those with other people within our circles of influence and also the pro life community because we want to defend life and we believe that we have to love people enough to tell them the truth, specifically about abortion. And so that is primarily the work that I'm in on a day to day basis and, and have also had the privilege of being able to step out into some other activism work as well. Recently.
- [02:42]
Riley
You're traveling, you're all over the place. You understand the toll that just that alone the travel takes on you. But you're right in saying, you know, I kind of preface by saying these are two totally different realms, but you're right in saying they really are similar. I think a lot of these cultural issues that we're really seeing, they do overlap in a lot of different ways. But as I mentioned, you've been faced with this new issue, of course, the gender ideology movement and all of its adverse effects. But, but really in a different way than most people think when they think about this issue, especially as it pertains to sports. And so I would love if you could give a little background as to, as to what I'm referring to here.
- [03:28]
Brandi Meeks
Absolutely. So first of all, I want to state, and I know you feel the same way. I love all people, right. That's why I, that's why I do the work that I do day in and day out is because I want equality for all people. I love equality. I love equality for all people. And that includes our young women that are participating in sports. And so recently I had something come across my radar and honestly I didn't.
- [03:53]
Riley
Really want to do it.
- [03:54]
Brandi Meeks
Right.
- [03:54]
Riley
I didn't really want to step into.
- [03:56]
Brandi Meeks
It because like you shared, I already had so much going on in my day to day life and I have a couple places that I can escape to, to not have to be on for those things and have a little bit of, just a little bit of privacy. And that's usually like in the gym, working out and then also getting to watch my kiddos wrestle. And that was something that, that we encountered about a month ago as we were enter into, entering into the state wrestling tournament. My daughter qualified for the state wrestling tournament. It's actually, I believe the fifth year in a row that we've had someone from our family that had qualified for the state wrestling tournament. And the weekend before, I received a message from a friend who said, hey, I'm actually probably one of the most liberal friends that you have, right. On social. But I want to give you a heads up about a situation because it might affect your daughter and I. It immediately kind of gave me pause, right? Like what, what are we talking about here? And as I looked into it, I could see that there was a school that was in the St. Louis, Missouri area that was bragging on the fact that there was. They called him, they called the student a he, but that he had recently won the girls district wrestling tournament. And I'm like, that's odd. And as I looked into it further. This student was in my daughter's weight class, in her bracket and was set to wrestle my daughter if she made it through her first round, my daughter, and if the student made it through their first round. So there was a high possibility. The student was, I believe, 53 and 4 on the year up until this point. And why that matters is that that's a pretty impressive wrestling record, right? And so it's pretty good chance that the student was going to make it through. My daughter did make it through as well. And then this is where, you know, it got a little bit messy because we were trying to understand is this student wrestling their biological gender, what is the situation? And so as I began digging into it a little bit further, this was an 18 year old biological woman who is transitioning to be an 18 year old man. And while we're not looking at medical records, the important thing to keep in mind is that this means there's a possibility of taking testosterone, which hormone, hormone therapy, which essentially are performance enhancing drugs. Okay? So this is where the caution starts to come in to think like this could be a problem. And then additionally, while we're not looking at the student's medical records, the student is bragging to other young women that is, that are in the wrestling circles that the student is taking testosterone to transition. So we have that. And then additionally, if you look at progressive pictures of the student, you would be inclined to think that they are taking testosterone. Here is where the problem ensues, right? This is where we have, we've exposed a loophole along the way and now we've got to close the loophole. When you're looking at this, this is much different than what you would typically think of, right? You, we, in your case, right, you have somebody who is, is posing as a woman that is competing against women with an unfair advantage because it is a man in this situation. This is a biological woman who maybe seems to be taking performance enhancing drugs to be a man that is still competing against their biological gender, right? And so that's where we start to have, start to have issues with that. Again, I didn't want to tackle the issue, if I'm being transparent, but when it steps into this situation, it's, it's like we can't, we can't turn our heads from it. I asked my daughter, I, I asked her, I said, what do you want to do? Right? Because again, like, this is the one place that we can kind of check out and, and just compete. And she said, mom, we have to do something. You, you know, people that can help us do something. And so that's, that's where we're at. That's where we are today.
- [08:14]
Riley
Well, I commend you for, of course, bringing this issue to light because like mentioned, we don't tend to think of it this way, but virtually what we're seeing across the board in every state, every sport, every level, every division, it's that women are getting the short end of the stick in every scenario. Males who are self identifying as women, of course, compete with the women, but females who self identify as men also compete with the women. And I don't think a lot of people realize this, but this was something I explained to you kind of before, of course, joining the podcast, but at that national championships where of course we competed against Leah Thomas, again, a 6 foot 4 male who identified as a woman, who we were told we fully had to treat as a woman. At the same national championships, we had another athlete who was transitioning, but this athlete is a female who began to self identify as a man, who we were told we fully had to treat as a man. Izzy, now goes by the name of Isaac, swam for Yale, ended up placing fifth in the nation in the 100 freestyle, which, let me just for perspective here, for optics purposes, okay, it's the finals of the 100 freestyle. Top eight swimmers in the entire country. And you've got again, a 6 foot 4 man in a women's swimsuit with a bulge next to a woman wearing only a Speedo with nothing covering her top, had clearly undergone, had a double mastectomy, but nothing covering her top. I'm sitting there watching this, Brandi, and I'm like, no, it's me. I'm the crazy one. It literally must be, this is the Twilight Zone. But anyways, Izzy, now identifying as Isaac, ended up placing fifth in the nation in the 100 freestyle, which is an incredible achievement to be top five in the country. Now she is competing with the men, at least her senior season she did. Finished dead last every single time. Got nowhere even remotely close to qualifying for men's NCAA championships while being an All American. On the women's side, not to mention in the Olympics, the Canadian women's soccer team had an athlete by the name of Quinn, who identified as a boy competing on the women's Olympic soccer team. Of course, we can ask the rhetorical question of, oh, you know, why is that? But you and I both know the answer. It's because these, these athletes, as proven, would never and will never be able to compete at the same level against the men. But enough of that. You mentioned a loophole. I imagine you're referring to Missouri law, so state law. So were they prepared for this scenario? Because of course they have a piece of legislation in place that ultimately protects sports on the basis of sex. Or so we thought. Ultimately what this bill does is really the main, the meat of it is prevents men from entering into to women's sports. You guys are fortunate to have a wonderful attorney general, some really awesome leaders in your state. But was Missouri law prepared for this scenario?
- [11:36]
Brandi Meeks
And I do want to commend them because they did a great job trying to protect our young women. They truly did. And that's another thing, like we're here, right here in the state capitol where this is happening. Right. And so very grateful for their attempt to do that. But again, you can't rationalize with irrational people and we're dealing with a very irrational population that, that are causing these issues. So they didn't see this coming. I mean it's really the first case of its kind. When I was talking with attorneys around the country as we were looking at ways to be able to prevent this from happening when, when we reached out to the state high school association, Tamisha, they their response was is your, are you, is she afraid that her daughter is going to lose? That was their, their compassionate response to us. Right. They are instead protecting their situation. Right. Because they are saying that the state statute nullified their previous policy that they did have in place. They had a policy in place up until this point that said if someone of a woman is transitioning to be a man and has, has gone public with that, that they are required to provide whether or not they are taking hormone therapy to do that. Okay. It was never between a man and a doctor or a woman and doctor at that point. It was in the state handbook. Right now they are saying, oh, she afraid her daughter's going to lose. For the record, my daughter did not lose. She beat the student 8 to 0. That is not a prideful thing. That is me being grateful that my daughter stepped into this because a lot of people were telling us like, hey, pull out. Let's, let's, you know, let's forfeit this, this match. And I just couldn't do, I couldn't do that for her dreams. This was not something she wanted to do. She wanted to hit this head on. And she did a great job. Her skill outperformed the muscle mass that was obviously in place with the other student. But going back to the loophole, what we're dealing with is the fact that you have to wrestle your biological gender. Okay, that makes sense. That's rational. But for someone who is transitioning, they no longer have to disclose to the state high school athletic association whether or not they are taking hormone therapy to do it. That is the problem, right? That is the situation we're dealing with. And I know that if we're dealing with it here, it might be the first of its kind of, but it will happen in other places. That is why my daughter wanted us to take a stand. That's why I'm doing this today. We do have Senate Bill 1440 that is currently has been sponsored by Senator Mary Elizabeth Coleman. I would encourage you that if you're in Missouri, you have family that's in Missouri, anybody who has a poll in Missouri to reach out to your legislators and tell them that you are in support of this anti doping bill. What this does is, is make sure that again that we expose and close the loophole for young women in Missouri. This will allow. This will ban any kind of hormone therapy and allow for young women to be protected should someone decide that they want to become. Want to transition to be a male and are born a biological woman. And let me just state, again, this is not about the student. It's not about the person. This is about the policy that's in place to be able to protect our young women. College wrestling for women is one of the fastest growing college sports right now and it's one of the fastest growing athletic scholarships for young women. They will be robbed of these opportunities if we do not close this loophole. That is why it's so important. This is not a one off situation. This will continue to happen if we don't take a stand on this issue. That's why it's so important. So I just, again, I want to encourage everyone to make sure that they reach out to legislators and let them know how important this really is. This is not just about anti doping for performance enhancing drugs. This is about closing a loophole that is much bigger than just not taking testosterone in order to maybe put on a little bit of muscle mass. This is about keeping biological women from doing it in order to still compete in a biological woman's sport.
- [15:54]
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- [16:25]
Riley
And you think to someone like Lance Armstrong, I mean, what do we call Lance Armstrong? We called him a cheater is what we called him. And I love the point that you brought up about your daughter winning. People all the time, they, they misconstrue the argument here and they think, oh, well, if this person's not winning, does it really matter? Yes, it matters. It's about the message that it's sending to young girls. We should be telling them that they're worthy of, of sex based categories and that they're worthy to be called champions, they're worthy of safety in their sports, they're worthy of maintaining their dignity and their feelings and identity being affirmed rather than having all of that kind of diminished to affirm the identity and feelings of a male. And to your point, this isn't, you know, this isn't us trying to say that this person. Well, as a Christian myself, I don't necessarily support transitioning from a biblical standpoint, but I think adults should certainly be able to do what they want to do with their own bodies as long as it doesn't cost my taxpayer dollars and I'm not forced to necessarily.
- [17:36]
Brandi Meeks
And isn't hurting somebody else's body like the unborn.
- [17:39]
Riley
Right, exactly, exactly. But every decision, understand, every decision has consequences. And so if this athlete wants to transition and wants to go down that route, a consequence of that might be not playing in the sport category of your assigned sex, your observed sex. So yes, I think it's also the juxtaposition here. Again, thinking about the ncaa, they've banned Celsius, the energy drink, because they say it's too much a performance enhancer. Celsius, they said there's too much caffe. So I guess, you know, why do you think they're scared to do what they know to be right? Are you kidding me? The ncaa, much broader than that, the ioc, even these state laws that are in place, they know, of course, that testosterone and other drugs like it are performance enhancing. Why do you think they're scared?
- [18:42]
Brandi Meeks
I think that they're scared because this doesn't give students a place to land that might be transitioning. And like you said, if you, if you want to change your biological gender and, and participate in sports, then you just, that's just not an option. Right. You have to wait until you've graduated from high school to make that decision, if that's what you want to do. And what you might find out, there are a lot of people that regret that.
- [19:11]
Riley
Right.
- [19:11]
Brandi Meeks
Doing that as a young person anyway. And so you might find out that they don't want to do that after they turn 18, right after they are an adult and their brains are fully formed. That might be the consequence. I think that the. That right now what we're seeing is again, our world is upside down and people are clamoring just to try to make everyone feel seen and heard. And they feel like this will give. This will prevent them from having a place to land anymore because. To play sports because they, they have to participate in their biological gender. And if they are to. If they are transitioning, then they wouldn't be able to participate. Well, then that, like you said, that's a natural consequence. Right. Of. Of what they would choose. And I think that's something we have to remember. We shouldn't punish our young women like you said that. I mean, I, I want them to feel safe and I want them to feel protected. We fought for so long as women to have the opportunities that we have, and we are just allowing them to be stripped away from us. And also, I want to say I've had a lot of people reach out to me and say thank you so much for speaking up for our girls and that we need to really encourage more women to do that. But I also have to say, men, we need you helping to protect us as well. Yes, we have voices. And I am grateful for people like, like you, Riley. And I am grateful to have the platform that I have and the abilities that I have been given and the network that we. But it is bigger than that. We need men to feel comfortable and not feel like that. They, they don't have a voice in this. They are dads, they are uncles, they are brothers. They are coaches. And we need you. We need you to protect our girls as well. Not from a sexist standpoint of feeling like we need men to, To. To handle this for us. No, we need to work together to handle this. And I just don't want men to feel like their voices have to be quieted because I've heard from a lot of. Of male coaches that have thanked me for saying something because they feel uneasy about saying something in this situation. And you know what? Many of them are probably scared for their jobs, and that's wrong. Right? We should be able to. And we should be able to embrace our values and take a stand on this, because, again, this is about protecting, protecting our girls. And it's not just from this standpoint. We're talking about. These girls go into combat with each other. Right. Like, it's not just like a track meet where you might run beside each other. This is a matter of. They are. They're wrestling. This is a full contact sport. It is not safe. Right. It's not just an unfair competitive advantage. It is unsafe for students to be taking performance enhancing drugs against someone who's not and unknowingly. So this is part of the issue as well. And we need men to step up and women and their voices be heard.
- [21:59]
Riley
Of course, parents, that's your call to action. Certainly, I could not agree more. We need to see moms, but we need to see dads. I think that's been the piece that's really been missing. We've seen a big push for moms running for school board and different things, but it's due time that both mothers and fathers are willing and coaches, I mean, you're right. Every leadership position should be defending these girls, kids in general, because, I mean, they're desperate for it. One more time.
- [22:30]
Brandi Meeks
And that's our job. Right?
- [22:31]
Riley
That's our job. Our job. Exactly. One more time. Can you plug the bill in Missouri to. To garner awareness, make sure. If you live in Missouri, make sure you are reaching out to your state senator, your state representative, letting them know how you feel about it. Because, again, it's important if you truly care about the safeguarding of children and women.
- [22:55]
Brandi Meeks
Sure it is. Senate Bill 1440. The way it reads it prohibits public and private elementary and secondary schools and institutions of post secondary education from being members of any statewide athletic activities association that allows students to use performance enhancing drugs. And just something to keep in mind, again, it's going to be labeled as an anti doping bill. People are going to maybe be confused about how that would connect to something transgender. But now you know the story behind it. And I think that's what we have to keep in mind. Right. Is it's not just about making sure some kids don't take some testosterone. It is much bigger than that because, again, we've exposed a loophole. Now it's our responsibility to close that loophole. That's how we can do this. That's how we can work together to do this. So please do not hesitate reaching out to your representatives, to our legislators, to be able to hopefully get this passed.
- [23:48]
Riley
Amazing. Well, we thank you for your stand on this and all of the issues that you have taken a stand on your voice and your platform are incredibly influential and desperately needed. So we are grateful for you, Brandy and we will be following along, following what SB 1440 is doing, how it's tracking and what we can do to support it. So thank you, thank you, thank you.
- [24:11]
Brandi Meeks
And thank you for your voice. We are so grateful to have you and you are fiery girl. I love it. Each time I'm inspired a little bit more to step out of my comfort zone and maybe be a little bit more fiery, a little bit more like Riley.
- [24:22]
Riley
Well, you're sweet, Brandi, so thank you. If you are living in Missouri, make sure you reach out to your state senator, your state representative and you are urging them to vote in support of this anti doping bill, SB 1440. Thank you guys for tuning in. We appreciate you. Make sure you like subscribe, comment anywhere where you get your podcast. Make sure to check us out@outkick.com and we will see you again next time. Radio.