NC athlete turned activist among Trump’s guests for his speech to Congress Tuesday night
President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump invited a former North Carolina high school student athlete as one of their guests to Trump’s speech before Congress on Tuesday night.
Payton McNabb, 19, a former student at Hiwassee Dam High School in Murphy, was one of 11 individuals or families invited to attend the speech as the Trumps’ guests.
The Trumps’ guest list also included the family of Corey Comperatore, who was killed at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania last summer by a man who tried to assassinate Trump.
“These men, women, and families come from all different walks of life with incredible stories about the disaster wrought by the previous administration, and the historic achievements President Trump has already enacted to usher in the Golden Age of America,” a White House news release stated.
McNabb became an activist against transgender girls and women playing on the sports teams of the gender they identify with after she suffered a traumatic brain injury in a September 2022 volleyball match against Highlands School. McNabb later revealed the opposing player who struck her in the face with a volleyball is a transgender athlete.
The North Carolina High School Athletic Association said that just two transgender females had been approved to compete in high school sports in the state since 2019. The association also says there’s a risk of injury for anyone who plays a sport, regardless of gender.
McNabb posted on social media Tuesday morning that being a guest of the Trumps is an incredible honor.
“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,” McNabb wrote.
Transgender athlete ban
McNabb planned to attend Trump’s speech before a joint session of Congress just one day after Republican senators failed to advance a bill that would ban transgender girls and women on female sports teams. Both Sens. Thom Tillis and Ted Budd, of North Carolina, co-sponsored the bill.
The vote needed 60 members of the Senate to move the bill forward, but all 45 Democrats and the two independents who caucus with them voted against it, leaving the 53 Republicans without the numbers they needed.
North Carolina Republicans found more success in 2023, when the state’s General Assembly successfully passed its own ban. Former Gov. Roy Cooper tried to veto the bill, but the General Assembly overrode it. Though North Carolina Republicans labeled the ban as “common sense,” Democrats said they didn’t understand why a bill was needed in the first place, and said they worried that trans youth would be negatively affected.
State of the Union
Tuesday night marks Trump’s first address to a joint session of Congress since returning to the White House. This is similar to a president’s State of the Union, but traditionally is not called that during a president’s first year in office.
Some Democrats were reportedly planning to bring guests who have been affected by Trump’s actions in six weeks as president, or boycott the speech altogether.
Law enforcement was on high alert with large fencing surrounding the Capitol to keep any potential protesters away.
This story was originally published March 4, 2025 at 1:00 PM.
