WASHINGTON (WBTV) – A teenager from North Carolina will be among the guests invited to attend President Donald Trump’s speech before Congress on Tuesday night, according to a CBS News report.
Payton McNabb is a former high school volleyball player from Murphy, N.C., who sustained a traumatic brain injury after a transgender athlete spiked the ball on her in a September 2022 match, according to a news release from the White House.
CBS News reported that McNabb was invited to a White House event on Feb. 27, just three weeks after Trump signed an executive order that banned transgender girls and women from competing in women’s sports.
McNabb called the invite to Tuesday’s speech “an incredible honor” on social media.
“Such an incredible honor to be a guest of [President Trump] and [First Lady Melania Trump] for the State of the Union,” she wrote. “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.”
Such an incredible honor to be a guest of @POTUS and @MELANIATRUMP for the State of the Union. 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!!!
— Payton McNabb (@paytonmcnabb_) March 4, 2025
According to her X account, she has also become an ambassador for the Independent Women’s Forum, which is a nonprofit that says it “works every day to engage and inform women about how policy issues impact them and their loved ones.”
Additional guests invited to Tuesday’s congressional address include the family of Corey Comperatore — a firefighter who died during the first Trump assassination attempt in Pennsylvania — along with the mother and sister of Laken Riley, a U.S. Border Patrol agent from Texas, and several others.
Tuesday’s speech is scheduled to begin at 9 p.m. ET and will be broadcast live on WBTV.
Related: Trump signs executive order intended to bar transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports
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