RALEIGH — President Donald Trump will deliver his first address of his second term to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night. His speech will outline his administration’s plans for the nation with the main theme being the “Renewal of the American Dream.”
Per a White House press release, a number of special guests will be joining the president and first lady at the address, including North Carolina’s Payton McNabb.
“Payton is a former high school athlete who had her dreams of competing in college sports crushed in a September 2022 volleyball match when a biological man playing on the opposing women’s team spiked the volleyball at Payton’s face, leaving her with a traumatic brain injury,” the press release states. “Payton joined with the Independent Women’s Forum and has made it her mission to put an end to this brutal unfairness.”
McNabb issued a statement on X that said it is an “incredible honor” to be the guest of the president and first lady.
“I am deeply grateful for this opportunity to be present and to have my story recognized as part of the fight to protect women’s sports. Thank you for giving a voice to this issue!!!” McNabb wrote.
McNabb spoke with North State Journal on several occasions as the legislature passed House Bill 574, the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, during its 2023 session.
In one interview, McNabb described how she was knocked unconscious and exhibited a fencing response, which is an indication of a traumatic brain injury, following a forceful blow to the head from a volleyball spike by a biological male playing on the opponent’s team.
McNabb was playing volleyball on the Hiwassee Dam High School team, located in Cherokee County, when the injury occurred. As a result of the incident involving McNabb, the school board voted to forfeit all future games against the team involved or any team with a transgender athlete on it.
McNabb says the impact of the blow left her with significant long-term physical and mental effects, including impaired vision, partial paralysis on her right side, and anxiety and depression. She was also forced to abandon her goal of playing college softball.
In April 2023, McNabb testified in front of the North Carolina House Judiciary Committee alongside All-American swimmer Riley Gaines, who has been a leader with the Independent Women’s Forum on the issue. At that time, Gaines posted the video of McNabb’s injury to the social media platform X to underscore the severity of the situation.
McNabb told members of the committee that she was forced to quit the rest of the season and still was experiencing pain, neurological injuries and was also having learning issues.
Female Democrats offered pushback during committee hearings that month leading up to the bill’s passage.
During a House Judiciary Committee meeting, Rep. Pricey Harrison (D-Guildford) called the bill a “solution looking for a problem” while citing a small number of males playing on female teams.
Sen. Natasha Marcus (D-Mecklenburg), during a Senate Education/Higher Education Committee meeting, seemed to doubt McNabb’s incident involved a male.
“I understand there was one report at a volleyball game where it’s unclear if the athlete was a trans athlete and if that was the reason, injuries happen,” Marcus. “I will point out injuries happen in sports all the time. We don’t need legislation to try to protect everyone and in every case.”
Then-Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed House Bill 574, stating in his veto message that, “We don’t need politicians inflaming their political culture wars by making broad, uninformed decisions about an extremely small number of vulnerable children that are already handled by a robust system that relies on parents, schools and sports organizations.”
McNabb responded to Cooper’s veto message, saying, “I can’t comprehend why we’re even having to have this debate. Allowing biological males to compete against biological females is dangerous. This is an incredibly important bill to me especially because I had to live it. I may be the first to suffer an injury, but if this doesn’t pass, I won’t be the last.”
Gaines echoed McNabb’s sentiments on the veto, stating, “His argument, actually, I didn’t understand it at all.”
“He essentially said that, if we were to pass (H.B. 574) ultimately in the long term, it hurts women,” said Gaines. “I couldn’t grasp what he means.”
Cooper’s veto was overridden by lawmakers in August 2023. No Democrats in the Senate supported the override, however, two House Democrats did.
The debate on men in women’s sports and spaces was a running theme under former President Joe Biden, who directed the U.S. Department of Education to issue changes to Title IX that altered the definition of sex to include gender identity. The change allowed for males to compete on female sports teams and opened up female locker rooms and bathrooms to males.
States sued over the rule change, which was dealt a final legal blow this January after a federal judge’s ruling struck it down nationwide. The ruling followed the Biden administration quietly withdrawing the rule from the Federal Register in December 2024. The withdrawal notice cited mounting legal challenges and public comments opposing the rule.
In early February, Trump made headlines for signing the executive order “Keeping Men Out Of Women’s Sports.” The president signed the order in the Oval Office surrounded by young women and girls.
Trump’s order directs the secretary of Education to enforce Title IX in a way that reserves women’s sports exclusively for biological females, instructs that agency to rescind funding from educational programs that allow transgender women to compete in women’s sports and directs other agencies to develop policies to protect women. McNabb is mentioned by name in the order’s fact sheet. North Carolina native Linda McMahon was confirmed to lead the Education Department on Monday.
Democrats in Congress have continued to oppose legislation banning transgender athletes, most recently with Senate Democrats blocking advancement of the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act. The vote was 51-45, which is short of the 60 needed to move the bill forward. All 45 who voted in opposition were Democrats. North Carolina’s Republican Sens. Thom Tillis and Ted Budd voted yes.
The House passed the Act by a vote of 218-206 in January, and all but two Democrats voted the measure down. North Carolina U.S. Reps. Alma Adams, Valerie Foushee and Deborah Ross all voted no. Rep. Don Davis voted present.
