Donald Trump’s Big Mac feasts for championship sports teams have become non-inclusive as women’s teams are not being invited. The White House just hosted Division II football champions for the first time since Bill Clinton, but that’s not the point at issue here. The question the White House needs to answer— they have yet to do so — is why women’s championship teams aren’t being invited, especially if he’s got time for even DII teams.
The fact that Trump’s communication’s department has yet to respond is telling and is quite indicative of the administration’s approach to women’s issues — one example being extensive changes to Title IX legislation. More specifically, under the guise of “due process,” Trump administration officials proposed changes to Title IX by redefining rape terminology in the accused’s favor, removing off-campus incidents from a university’s legal liability, and altering the burden of proof from “clear and convincing” to “preponderance of evidence,” which obviously places an elevated bar for sexual assault victims.
The proposed changes to Title IX accurately represent a complete moral aversion to women’s rights and this cloud of shame lingers over the White House, as is the case with the lack of diversity in regard to championship female sport team invitees. The reigning WNBA champions, the Seattle Storm, are likely following the approach of the Minnesota Lynx, who were never extended White House invitations — but refused them just in case, anyway, in order to do community service to help out the city of Washington D.C.
Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve, who recalled a time when President Barack Obama did call on her team after their previous championships, told the Minnesota Star Tribune last May that her team wasn’t losing sleep over it:
The trend certainly is that women’s sports aren’t recognized in the same way men’s sports are. That’s the unfortunate pattern. We don’t want to believe that’s the case, but it’s hard not to think that.”
It’s astonishing that this isn’t a more compelling issue for the public at large. The regression being put on display by the White House is abhorrent and should concern the casual observer. Remember, gestures and ceremony matter as well, especially if one considers the White House as truly representative of the American people, i.e., all sports teams should be invited.
However, to Trump’s detriment, these seemingly trivial gestures will come back to haunt him in the 2020 presidential election. Did he not learn a lesson from the 2018 midterms? Women came out in force and derailed his assault on America.
Featured image via DC Tribune Gallery
