Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that biology is real and biology matters. The Court’s decision recognizing that men and women have inherent differences in women’s sports cases is a resounding victory for every girl who experienced defeat because a boy was allowed to compete against her.
Across the country, girls are losing medals, roster spots, titles, opportunities, and privacy. The high court’s monumental ruling in Little v. Hecox and State of West Virginia v. B.P.J. — including a unanimous 9–0 win on Title IX — levels the playing field for female athletes and, even more importantly, affirms biological truth and reality.
Alliance Defending Freedom was proud to serve as co-counsel with Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador and West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey in defending both of their states’ laws protecting women’s sports.
Activists challenged those commonsense laws, insisting on pushing the destructive lie of gender ideology over girls’ opportunity, safety, and privacy. The resulting harm has been real, widespread, and devastating.
As we celebrate today’s much-needed return to sanity and fairness, I’m thinking of every courageous girl who got us to this point — of the female athletes who refused to stay quiet in the face of injustice, many of whom we have the privilege to represent.
Just in West Virginia, the boy who challenged its Save Women’s Sports law defeated more than 470 girls over 1,400 times and just won the women’s state championship in shot put. Our client Adaleia Cross knows the devastating consequences of laws that reject truth all too well. Not only did B.P.J. take her spot in a track-and-field championship meet, but he also sexually harassed Adaleia in the girls’ locker room, whispering in her ear sexually explicit things he wanted to do to her.
Madi Kenyon and Mary Kate Marshall, the girls standing to protect Idaho’s Fairness in Women’s Sports law, both ran against a male athlete and lost every time.
In Washington state, a male wrestler whom the school district allowed to wrestle in a girls-only tournament sexually assaulted our client, 16-year-old Kallie Keeler.
In Connecticut, a boy took four state championship titles from Chelsea Mitchell. Selina Soule and Ashley Nicoletti lost the opportunity to compete at the state championship by one spot — that spot taken by a boy.
Lia Thomas went from 65th in men’s rankings to 1st in women’s after switching to compete on the women’s swim team. This was after testosterone suppression. That is not a glitch. That is the biological reality that no drug can make a man a woman or erase the male athletic advantage.
As a United Nations study recently revealed, more than 600 female athletes across 29 sports were defeated by men, who collectively took over 890 medals.
The bottom line is you cannot build fairness on falsehood. Policies that fail to recognize that sex matters in athletics sacrifice girls’ opportunities for a lie.
Girls’ sports should be fair and equal. Their spaces should be safe and private. When those protections are compromised, lasting damage is done.
Today’s decision is good news for the women and girls in the 27 states that chose to protect women’s sports. Now the other states must follow suit. The time is now for lawmakers, schools, and parents in those states to act. Men do not belong in women’s sports or locker rooms, and no girl, regardless of where she lives, should be denied equal opportunity.
And an overwhelming majority of Americans — across party lines — agree.
Attorneys General Labrador and McCuskey led. Every lawmaker and school administrator in the remaining 23 states should act now to protect women’s sports — or answer for why they are perpetrating injustice.
That’s because this issue goes beyond sports. When we can’t define what a woman is, every girl’s privacy is jeopardized in locker rooms, restrooms, school trips, and prisons. What happens on the field is just the beginning.
Let’s rejoice in this historic ruling that restores common sense. But let’s also stay the course in contending for objective truth and biological reality in every corner of society where false ideas and harmful policies have sought to take root. Every girl deserves fairness, safety, and equal opportunity.
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Kristen Waggoner is CEO, president, and chief counsel of Alliance Defending Freedom. Follow Kristen on X @KristenWaggoner or follow ADF @ADFLegal.
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