IFI’s 2023 “Titanium Backbone” Award

IFI’s 2023 “Titanium Backbone” award goes to the Wheeler family from the Springfield area. Over the summer, 16-year-old Abbigail Wheeler spoke out about a foolish policy adopted by the YMCA which forced her and other women to share a locker room with biological males. She was kicked off her swim team after she complained about it.

Kaitlynn Wheeler, a swimmer at the University of Kentucky and a teammate of Riley Gaines, encountered a nude biological male in the women’s locker room who calls himself “Lea” Thomas. Ranked only in the top 400 swimmers as a male, Thomas beat out Kaitlynn, Riley, and other female Olympians and world record holders.