Republicans in Congress, led by Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., are working to designate this week National Women's Sports Week as the controversy over whether transgender women should be allowed to participate in women's sports.

The move comes as Friday marks the the 51st anniversary of Title IX, the historic law has expanded opportunities for women and girls in sports.

I’m standing here today for the next generation of girls who are training to compete and who do not want to have to face men with an unfair biological advantage," explained Riley Gaines, a twelve-time NCAA All-American swimmer and advisor for Independent Women’s Voice during a press conference introducing the National Women's Sports Week resolution.

Gaines is the former college swimmer who tied in a race with Lia Thomas, a transgender woman.

Gaines testified about encountering Thomas in a locker room during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday entitled, "Protecting Pride: Defending the Civil Rights of LGBTQ+ Americans."

"Of course, the experience in and of the locker room itself was traumatizing, but I think for me, it was so easy for them to dismiss our rights to privacy," Gaines told the committee of her experience in a locker room with Thomas.

LGBTQ+ people of the United States are living in a state of emergency," said Kelley Robinson, the president of the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ civil rights group. "This is not an exaggeration, this is not a dramatization, more than 525 anti-LGBTQ+ bills have been introduced in the states.

According to the Movement Advancement Project, 22 states ban transgender athletes from taking part in sports that align with their gender identities.

A Gallup poll released earlier this month shows 69 percent of Americans say transgender athletes should only be allowed to compete on sports teams that match their birth gender, that's up seven points from two years ago.

Meanwhile, the Biden Administration is moving forward with a proposal to amend Title IX that would make it illegal for schools to have a one-size-fits-all policy that bans transgender students from participating on teams consistent with their gender identity.