Girls Sports

Trump Signs Executive Order Protecting Women’s Sports and Spaces

Yesterday, President Trump celebrated National Girls and Women in Sports Day by signing a much-anticipated executive order to protect women’s sports and spaces across the United States.

The signing ceremony was packed with female athletes and other champions for women and girls in the East Room at the White House.

Some more well known female athletes included Riley Gaines and Payton McNabb — the high school volleyball player who was knocked unconscious when a male playing on the opposing girls’ volleyball team spiked a volleyball into her face.

President Trump told attendees that his executive order is about commonsense.

He said, “From now on, women’s sports will be only for women.”

The executive order is titled, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.”

The order declares that the practice of letting men compete in women’s sports is “demeaning, unfair and dangerous to women and girls, and denies women and girls the equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports.”

The order continues:

Therefore, it is the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy. It shall also be the policy of the United States to oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.

The order is applicable to K-12 public schools, colleges and universities.

At the signing ceremony, President Trump said, “We are putting every school receiving taxpayer dollars on notice – if you let men take over woman’s sports teams or invade your locker rooms, you will be investigated for violations of Title IX and risk your federal funding. There will be no federal funding.”

The order requires the secretary of education “take all appropriate action to affirmatively protect all-female athletic opportunities and all-female locker rooms” and directs the secretary to prioritize enforcement against schools that violate the policy. 

Additionally, the secretary of state is directed to use all appropriate and available measures to convince the Olympics Committee to limit women’s sports to only female athletes.

The order is a victory for every girl and every woman who advocated for a level playing field in sports, talked about fairness in competition, and refused to be silenced or canceled by radical transgender activists.

Earlier this week, a new pro-woman video with Riley Gaines went viral after being shared by J.K. Rowling. The post, featuring the video, got over six million views in the first 36 hours.

President Trump told attendees that the war on women’s sports is over and while that might be true under this Administration there are no guarantees in the next.

The only way forward is to cement this executive order into federal law; legislation to do so was introduced in the House of Representatives last month. 

It is imperative that Congress act as soon as possible to protect women’s sports and spaces through statute.

We can never go back to the dark days of the past where women were denied equal opportunities, their safety and security was sacrificed on the altar of gender ideology.

Image from Getty.

J.K. Rowling Promotes New Viral Video with Riley Gaines

A new video featuring Riley Gaines has gone viral, with J.K. Rowling’s help. The video illustrates the real strength and courage it takes for girls to compete, not just in sports, but against the woke mob, too.

The powerful video is part of a campaign called Real Girls Rock.

It highlights Gaines and her little sister, a state champion in gymnastics, among other women in different sports pursuing their athletic goals and dreams despite the criticism, hate, personal attacks and gaslighting of “trans” activists and their allies.

As each of these female athletes train tirelessly to become the best at their sport, they are threatened with labels like “transphobic,” “right-wing bigot,” and “fearmongerer.”  

Audio clips play in the background saying, “Who cares?” “Just be inclusive,” “Female athletes just need to work harder,” and “Don’t blame others for your lack of success.”

The video ends with the words, “Real strength, real courage, Real Girls Rock.”

The ad was produced by XX-XY Athletics, a pro-woman apparel company, of which Gaines is a brand ambassador.

The video immediately received positive responses on X, including promotion by J.K. Rowling who shared the video and wrote, “This is the first and likely the last time I’ll retweet an ad, but I love it.” Rowling has consistently demonstrated courage in standing up for girls and women rights against gender ideologues.

Gaines shared the video on her X account and wrote that her little sister is her inspiration to keep fighting to save girls sports.

The compelling video resonates with so many viewers because we know it’s true. We all lived it.

We saw female athletes robbed of titles, scholarships, and future sporting opportunities because they were unfairly forced to compete against males.

And then when some of those female athletes, and some of us, pointed out the obvious — that it’s not fair to pit a girl against a boy in sports — trans activists gaslit us and said we were the problem.

In reality, the toxic woke agenda of the transgender movement is the problem. It is fundamentally anti-woman and hurts real girls and women.

It’s time for all people of goodwill to refuse to live by the lies being propagated by the transgender movement.

This is our moment to stand up for the women in our lives — wives, daughters, sisters, nieces, granddaughters, and female friends.

We need to tap into the same courage and strength we see from the girls in this video.

Be strong in your convictions and courageous in advocating for the truth on this issue.

There is no need to apologize for speaking the truth.

Related Articles and Resources

Riley Gaines to Nike: ‘Protect Girls, Just Do It!’

The ‘Transgender’ Movement is Canceling Women, and It Must Stop

Allowing ‘Transgender Women’ to Compete Against Biological Women in Sports is Anti-Woman

Riley Gaines’ Sponsors ‘Real Women’s Day’ – Did Penn State Shut Her Out?Video: Riley Gaines on Being Targeted, Advice For Parents, Advocating Female Rights

Image credit: XX-XY Athletics /X

Victory for Girls Sports: Court Halts DOE Redefinition of Sex

In a tremendous victory for girls and women’s sports, a federal district court overturned the Department of Education’s redefinition of “sex” in Title IX to include “gender identity.” The ruling strikes down the DOE’s redefinition nationwide.

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, in a case against the DOE brought by six states, ruled:

The Final Rule and its corresponding regulations exceed the Department’s authority under Title IX, violate the Constitution, and are the result of arbitrary and capricious agency action.

The court added:

When Title IX is viewed in its entirety, it is abundantly clear that discrimination on the basis of sex means discrimination on the basis of being a male or female. …

As this Court and others have explained, expanding the meaning of “on the basis of sex” to include “gender identity” turns Title IX on its head.

The Education Amendments Act of 1972 was designed to give girls and women equal opportunities in education and to keep them from being discriminated against.

But changing the definition of sex meant that males who claim to be females could take educational and sports opportunities from girls and women. It also meant those males could violate the privacy and safety of women in locker rooms, showers and restrooms.

The DOE, under Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, announced the new definition in April 2024, saying:

Discrimination on the basis of sex includes discrimination on the basis of sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.

As the Daily Citizen has previouslyreported, this lead to defiance and a flood of lawsuits from states, organizations and individuals opposed to males invading girls and women’s private spaces and taking opportunities, scholarships and prizes from them.

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti filed the lawsuit on behalf of Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana, Virginia, and West Virginia, alleging:

The sweeping Title IX mandate would upend schools’ long-lawful practices protecting student privacy, unfairly undermine women’s academic and athletic achievements and related advancement in society, and punish States for following their laws.

Later, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) joined Tennessee’s suit, intervening on behalf of Christian Educators Association International and a female track and field athlete from West Virginia, “A.C.”

ADF’s complaint explained that a male athlete was allowed to join her middle school girls track and field team and access the girls locker rooms. He also made “sexual and harassing comments to A.C. while they competed together on the girls sports team.”

ADF CEO, President, and General Counsel Kristen Waggoner celebrated the victory, saying:

This is a colossal win for women and girls across the country. The Biden administration’s radical attempt to redefine sex not only tossed fairness, safety, and privacy for female students out the window, it also threatened free speech and parental rights. With this ruling, the federal court in Kentucky rejected the entire Biden rule and the administration’s illegal actions. 

Skrmetti likewise applauded the decision in a statement, saying, “This is a huge win for Tennessee, for common sense, and for women and girls across America.”

The case is State of Tennessee v Cardona.

Related articles and resources:

ADF: Victory for women, girls: Federal court rejects Biden admin redefinition of ‘sex’ in Title IX across country

Biden Becomes Nation’s Most Powerful Trans Activist With Executive Order

Court Rules Against DOE’s Title IX Rewrite, Saving Women’s Sports & Spaces – For Now

Florida and Oklahoma Reject Biden Admin’s Rule Letting Men into Women’s Bathrooms and Sports

New Biden Admin. Rule Lets Men into Women’s Locker Rooms, Bathrooms and Sports

On 50th Anniversary of Title IX, Groups Fight to Protect Women’s Sports

Second Federal Court Halts DOE’s Title IX Rewrite – Protecting Girls’ Sports & Spaces

Third Court Halts DOE’s Title IX Rewrite, Girls’ Sports & Spaces Preserved

Image credit: ADF

Big Win for Women’s Golf: LPGA and USGA Publish New ‘Transgender’ Policies

Ladies Professional Golf Association and the U.S. Golf Association published new policies barring males who went through some stages of puberty from playing women’s professional golf.

The policies were developed after female golfers pushed back when the LPGA Tour allowed Hailey Davidson, a male who attempts to live as a female, to compete in its qualifying series. Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) led the campaign, sending a letter signed by more than 300 female golfers to the LPGA and USGA opposing men in their sport.

The win is part of a growing movement to keep boys and men from erasing girls and women and unfairly taking medals, scholarships, spots on teams and prize money from female athletes.

IWF listed some of the women responsible for this victory:

Professional golfers and IWF ambassadors Lauren Miller, Hannah Arnold, Dana Fall, and Amy Olson have led a movement internally among 300+ female professional golfers to overturn the policies and restore fairness and integrity to their beloved sport and profession.

The letter, which IWF sent on August 19, 2024, was shared with Outkick. The athletes said it was unfair to allow men in women’s sports, arguing: 

We all know there can be no equal athletic opportunity for women without a separate female golf category. Yet, the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) continues to propagate a policy that allows male athletes to qualify, compete and win in women’s golf, even as several national and international governing bodies of sport and state legislatures increasingly reject these unjust and inequitable policies that harm female athletes.

The advocacy group said it’s impossible for a man to become a woman and noted the advantages males have in golf due to physiological differences between the sexes:

The male advantage in driving the ball is estimated around a 30% performance advantage; this is an enormous difference in the context of sport. Anatomical differences between males and females affect clubhead speed and regulating consistency at ball contact. Females have higher mean heart rates and encounter greater physiological demands while playing, especially at high altitudes. The anatomical differences are not removed with male testosterone suppression. There is no way to turn a male into a female. Being female is not equated to being male with a reduction in strength.

The IWF also led a letter-writing campaign where more than 8,000 individuals wrote letters to the LPGA and USGA demanding the associations “end participation policies that erase equal opportunity and the spirit of women’s professional golf. 

The LPGA’s new “Gender Policy for Competition Eligibility” now states:

In consulting with top experts in the fields of medicine, science, sport physiology and golf performance, we have been advised that a Player’s exposure to male puberty provides physical advantages that are beneficial to golf performance compared to Players who have not had such exposure. …
A Player’s exposure to male puberty provides physical advantages that are beneficial to golf performance compared to Players who have not had such exposure.

The policy explains that male players can only play women’s golf if “they have not experienced any part of male puberty either beyond Tanner Stage 2 or after age 12 [whichever comes first].”

The “Tanner Staging System” was developed by British Pediatric Endocrinologist James Mourilyan Tanner after two decades of studying the physical development of children through adolescent to adulthood. Stage 1 is before puberty begins, so Stage 2 is the first stage in puberty, when male or female hormones begin to be released in the body, triggering physical, emotional and mental changes in adolescents.  

Conceivably, a child born male, who has early puberty blockers to stop this natural, normal process, and then goes on to have female hormones and surgeries could play on the LPGA Tour and its affiliated tours – even though he is still different from girls and women.

But those who have gone through male puberty, like Davidson, will not be able to compete on the LPGA Tour.

The USGA Policy adopts similar guidelines for “transgender female” athletes but allows women who claim to be men to compete with women – as long as they have never used male hormones. And it allows “transgender females” to compete on men’s teams.

The policy also allows “transgender males” (women claiming to be men) who use testosterone to compete in men’s golf.

IWF and women athletes celebrated the victory, with professional golfer Dana Fall opining:

Today’s policy announcement is a huge win for women and girls in sports. The LPGA and USGA, the premiere bodies which dictate the rules of women’s golf, are standing up for fairness and the integrity of our sport. Today, the message sent to women is that we do matter, and they are working to return equal opportunity and protect fair sport for female athletes.  

Related articles and resources:

Independent Women’s Forum and Independent Women’s Law Center explain the physiological differences between males and females and the harms when males compete against women: “Competition Report: Title IX, Male-Bodied Athletes, and the Threat To Women’s Sports”

Addressing Gender Identity with Honesty and Compassion

Focus on the Family: Counseling Consultation & Referrals

Focus on the Family: Transgender Resources

Homeschooled Christian Golfer Amy Olson to Play U.S. Women’s Open While 7 Plus Months Pregnant

No, It’s Not ‘Complicated’ to Keep Men Out of Women’s Sports

Riley Gaines and 15 Other Female Athletes Sue NCAA Over ‘Transgender Policy’

#SaveGirlsSports – New Campaign Launched by Family Policy Alliance

Shoving Girls Off the Podium: More Male Athletes Participating in Girls Sports

Women Golfers Protest LPGA Policy Allowing ‘Transgender’ Competitors

Image from Getty.

NCAA and San Jose State ‘Transgender’ Volleyball Player Usurp Women’s Rights

Boise State forfeited the semifinal game of the 2024 Mountain West Women’s Volleyball Championship tournament rather than play San Jose State, which had a “transgender” volleyball player on its team.

The school’s courageous stand for women-only sports and private spaces demonstrates the high cost of the NCAA’s “Transgender Student-Athlete Participation Policy,” which allows participation in sports based on an athlete’s “gender identity.”

The policy threatens women’s accomplishments and rights, but the Boise team is part of a growing backlash against transgender ideology that claims a man can become a woman through clothing and makeup, drugs, hormones and surgeries. Or just by proclaiming it so.

Boise teammates and sisters Kiersten and Katelyn Van Kirk explained the decision to Fox News’ sports outlet OutKick, with Katelyn saying:

And in the end, I guess we all had to come to terms with the idea that this is bigger than ourselves and a championship has to be given up for this fight [to protect women’s sports] to actually keep going.

Boise State forfeited twice to SJSU during the regular season. Southern Utah, the University of Wyoming and Utah State also withdrew from games with the Spartans due to the presence of Blaire Fleming, who was born male but attempts to live as a woman.

Nine players filed a lawsuit to block Fleming from playing in the tournament, but Denver Judge S. Kato Crews ruled against them.

SJSU went on to lose to Colorado State for the championship in four sets.

But the tournament highlights harms when males are allowed to play women’s  sports, including:

  • Girls and women lose scholarships and positions on teams. Fleming received a full scholarship that should have gone to a woman.
  • After working for years to achieve athletic success, 717 female athletes have lost more than 1,055 competitions and 518 medals to boys and men, reports the website SheWon.org. SJSU’s inclusion of a male brought losses to dozens of women throughout the season and in the championship tournament.
  • Male athletes endanger women athletes. A Title IX complaint from SJSU Associate Head Coach Melissa Batie-Smoose said, “Even defenders on Fleming’s own team, concerned for their safety, now sometimes turn away during practice matches when Fleming is winding up for a kill – a fear response … virtually unheard of in women’s volleyball.”
  • Teachers and coaches have been fired for not kowtowing to transgender policies and ideology. Batie-Smoose was suspended from her coaching position after filing her complaint in defense of the women she coached.
  • Athletes and teams have been banned from competition for opposing males in girls and women’s sports.
  • When males enter female-only restrooms, locker rooms, showers and lodging rooms, girls and women lose their privacy and are unwillingly exposed to male bodies. SJSU’s co-captain Brooke Slusser was forced to share rooms with Fleming – without being told her teammate was male. 

In addition to these harms, women who speak out against transgender policies are often targeted by transgender-identified activists and their allies. Slusser was threatened after she spoke out against Fleming’s presence on the team, leading to a police presence and metal detectors at a Spartan game against Colorado.

Thankfully, there is a growing backlash against men in women’s sports and private spaces.  A 2023 Gallup poll showed that 69% of Americans believe transgender athletes “should only be allowed to play on sports teams that match their birth gender’ – an increase from 62% in 2021.

Along with refusing to compete against males, women are also fighting back with lawsuits. Swimmer and women’s rights activist Riley Gaines, along with more than a dozen other female athletes, sued the NCAA in May 2024 over its policy that permits men to compete against them and use female locker rooms.

Earlier this month, the Van Kirks and ten other women sued the Mountain West Conference for violating their Title IX and First Amendment rights.

The forfeiture was painful for the Boise State women. But Kiersten explained its importance, as the team fights for women athletes across the nation. She told OutKick:

It’s just disheartening and heartbreaking that it had to come to this. But I know that we are all working towards future generations being able to have a safe place for female athletes to compete and putting that above ourselves, which is a really hard thing to do because obviously our goal was to win a championship. And I think that it’s extremely unfair and really terrible that it had to come to that.

The Daily Citizen applauds these women for their courageous, costly stance. We too want future generations of girls and women to have access to female-only sports, privacy and safety.  

Related articles and resources:

Counseling Consultation & Referrals

Transgender Resources

Canadian Powerlifter Faces Two-Year Ban for Protesting Males in Her Sport

Four Women’s Volleyball Teams Forfeit – Won’t Play Team with a Man

San Jose Coach Suspended for Filing Discrimination Complaint Against Transgender Player

#SaveGirlsSports – New Campaign Launched by Family Policy AllianceCanadian Powerlifter Faces Two-Year Ban for Protesting Males in Her Sport

Image from Getty.