Girls Sports

Supreme Court to Hear Title IX Girls Sports Cases

The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in two cases about Idaho and West Virginia laws protecting girls sports from male athletes claiming to be female.

The landmark cases will be heard Tuesday, January 13, with the outcome determining if states can uphold biological reality and limit girls and women’s sports to those who are female.

Twenty-six states have similar laws safeguarding girls and women’s sports, all of which could be affected by the Court’s ruling.

In addition, a favorable verdict — protecting girls and women’s sports — could support lawsuits against states and sports organizations that have capitulated to “transgender” ideology and allowed males to compete as females.

The first case, Little v. Hecox, deals with Idaho’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act. The state was the first in the nation to pass such legislation, signed into law March 30, 2020.

Just two weeks later, the American Civil Liberties Union, which used to support women’s rights in education, filed a lawsuit challenging the Fairness Act on behalf of Lindsay Hecox, who was born male but lives as if he were a woman.

Hecox wanted to run with the ladies on Boise State University’s cross country team. The ACLU argued that Idaho’s Fairness Act violated Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in education, along with the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause.

The complaint stated:

Under Title IX, discrimination “on the basis of sex” encompasses discrimination against individuals because they are transgender, because they are women and girls (whether cisgender or transgender), and because they depart from stereotypes associated with sex (which can include stereotypes about sex characteristics that are or are not typically associated with being male or female).   

Basically, the suit is saying that “transgender girls” (who are male) are girls and that they should not be excluded on the basis of “stereotypes associated with sex.” According to the ACLU’s logic, these “girls” can have “stereotypical” male features such as male genes, reproductive organs, bone structure and musculature.

Idaho’s attorney general defended the measure, with attorneys for Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filing a motion on behalf of two female collegiate athletes, Madison Keyon and Mary Kate Marshall, to intervene in the lawsuit.

Although a federal district court allowed the women to intervene, it halted enforcement of the Fairness Act. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit upheld that ruling.

Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador, along with ADF attorneys, appealed the case to the Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the Idaho and West Virginia cases in July 2025. 

The second case is State of West Virginia v. BPJ.

In 2021, West Virginia was the fifth state to pass a law protecting female athletics. The Sports Act, HB 3293, clarified that male and female sports teams in public secondary schools and colleges must be based on biological sex.

Again, the law was challenged in court by the ACLU along with Lambda Legal, another radical LGBT activist group.  

The complaint was filed on behalf of Becky Pepper-Jackson (B.P.J.) and his mother, Heather Jackson, who is raising the boy as if he were a girl.

ADF intervened “in the lawsuit on behalf of Lainey Armistead, a former collegiate athlete who played soccer at West Virginia State University.”

ADF is co-counsel with West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey. A federal district judge ruled in favor of the state law, but that sensible ruling was overturned by the U.S Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit.

So West Virgina appealed to the Supreme Court, which consolidated the case with Idaho’s.

Pepper-Jackson was 11 years old when the suit was filed; now he is 15. His and his mother’s complaint reads:

H.B. 3293 is based on unfounded stereotypes, false scientific claims, and baseless fear and misunderstanding of girls who are transgender, which are insufficient to justify discriminatory treatment under any level of scrutiny.

West Virgina responded to the lawsuit:

Allowing biological males to compete in female sports is unfair to biological females due to males’ inherent physical advantages. … It is thus plain that a public school may lawfully prohibit, consistent with the Constitution, males from participating in women’s sports in order to protect equal opportunity concerns that arise from the physiological differences between the two sexes.

Every time a male-bodied athlete competes in a female sport, girls lose out. Thousands of female athletes have been bumped off winner’s podiums by males masquerading as women. The website shewon.org lists 3,257 female athletes around the world who have lost 4,627 medals, sports records, scholarships or other opportunities to male-bodied athletes.

In addition, girls and women are unwillingly exposed to male bodies in locker rooms and showers; are forced to change in front of male athletes; lose the opportunity for female-only camaraderie; and have their safety threatened.

Please pray for the justices as they consider these cases.

The Daily Citizen will keep you updated about Little v. Hecox and State of West Virginia v. BPJ.

Related articles and resources:

ACLU Lawsuit Challenges Idaho Law Protecting Girl’s and Women’s Sports

Biologically Male Collegiate Athlete Wins Female Runner of the Week Award

Biologically Male Runner Decides to Compete as a Woman in College Cross Country

Collegiate Women Athletes File Motion to Keep Biological Males Out of Women’s Sports in Idaho

Idaho Governor Signs Laws Protecting Women’s Sports and Keeping Birth Certificates Based on Biology – Activists and Media Call this ‘Discriminatory’

Meet Three Heroes Working to Protect Colorado Children

Middle School Girls Who Protested ‘Trans’ Athlete Are Banned From Future Competition

U.S. Supreme Court Takes Up Cases on Boys in Girls Sports

West Virginia Passes ‘Save Girls Sports’ Act

Yes, Girls Care When Boys Take Their Trophies

Photo: West Virginia State University soccer player Lainey Armistead, courtesy of Alliance Defending Freedom.

Olympics Set to Keep Men Out of Women’s Sports

The International Olympic Committee finally moved to protect women’s sports with a new policy that will prohibit males from competing in women’s events in the Olympic Games.

The Times of London first reported the news, following an IOC meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland.

“The International Olympic Committee is set to announce a ban on transgender women in female competition early next year after a science-based review of evidence about permanent physical advantages of being born male.”

The Times, of course, is mistaken in its terminology.

There are no “transgender women,” only sexually-confused males who use drugs, hormones and surgeries in a misguided attempt to appear like women.

IOC President Kirsty Coventry led the charge to safeguard Olympic female athletes, announcing after her election in March 2025 “that a task force of scientists and international federations would be set up within weeks to come up with a new [transgender and intersex] policy,” The Guardian reported.

Coventry explained that new scientifically-based IOC guidelines are needed to protect women’s sports.

“It was very clear from the members that we have to protect the female category, first and foremost. We have to do that to ensure fairness. And we have to do it with a scientific approach.”

Last week, task force member Dr. Jane Thornton, IOC health, medicine and science department director, gave an initial report to IOC members about male athlete’s physical advantages.

“Sources said the presentation by Thornton, a Canadian former Olympic rower, stated that scientific evidence showed there were physical advantages to being born male that remained with athletes, including those who had taken treatment to reduce testosterone levels,” as the Times reported.

The IOC first adopted guidelines paving the way for men to compete in women’s sports in 2015.

That guidance, from the “IOC Consensus Meeting on Sex Reassignment and Hyperandrogenism,” stated that a man must have declared his identity as a woman for at least four years and demonstrate testosterone levels below 10 nanomoles per liter for at least 12 months before their first competition.

But simply lowering testosterone doesn’t transform a man into a woman, and lower testosterone doesn’t change male advantages in sports: greater lung capacity and heart size; larger, heavier bones and muscles; and different hip and leg structures. 

New guidelines, released in 2021, passed the buck to international governing bodies that oversee various sports, allowing them to set their own policies on “transgender” athletes.

This led to the debacle in the 2024 Paris Olympics where two males, Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-Ting won gold medals in women’s boxing. Both were born with rare disorders of sexual development that made them appear female at birth.

But Khelif and Yu-Ting  have XY chromosomes that triggered male puberty, giving them distinct physical advantages over the women they pummeled.

Despite lies from transgender activists and their allies, everyone knows that males and females are physiologically different, with testosterone giving males competitive advantages in sports.

Men’s bodies are different from women’s. This means that men, in general, can out-compete women. That’s why we’ve always had separate sports categories for men and women.

Even if a man believes he’s a woman, he competes in sports with his male body. Women have been injured by men playing their sport, and men who do so steal opportunities, titles, records and victories from women.

The Daily Citizen is glad that the IOC is finally choosing reality over propaganda and false ideology and is moving to protect women’s sports.

It’s about time.

Related Articles and Resources

International Olympic Committee: Men Can Compete as Women, As Long as It’s Fair?

International Olympic Committee’s Revised ‘Transgender Guidelines’ Delayed Until After 2022 Winter Games

IOC President Reaffirms Biological Male Can Compete Against Women at Olympics

Male and Female Biology Matters

Male Boxer Khelif Barred from Female Category After Rule Change

New Visa Policy Blocks Male Athletes from Entering U.S. to Compete in Women’s Sports

Olympic Track and Field Protects Women. Why Won’t Other Sports Do the Same?

Olympic Women’s Boxing Champ is Officially a Man

Transgender Ideology is Inherently Destructive

Transgender Ideology is Inherently Destructive, Part 2

Transgender Resources

Two Men Win Olympic Gold for Battering Women

World Athletics Announces Testing Protocols to Keep Men Out of Women’s Athletics

Image from Shutterstock.

Loudoun Girls Fight ‘Trans’ Agenda Through School Board Election Involvement

Loudoun County female students are actively engaging in local school board elections by advocating for candidates who support girls’ privacy and safety in school sports, restrooms and locker rooms.

As ABC 7 News, the local North Virginia affiliate, reports, “The current school board is fighting to keep its locker room and bathroom policy, titled Policy 8040.”

The policy allows students to participate in activities and access restrooms and locker rooms based on their “consistently asserted gender identity” regardless of biology.

But girls are fed up with Policy 8040, which allows boys who “identify” as girls to enter private female-only spaces. Boys are upset about girls using their facilities and are also involved in the campaign to protect students from “transgender” policies.

Their story illustrates why local school board elections are so important – and why civic engagement from conservatives and Christians is critical. 

“As early voting is underway, some teens are greeting Loudoun County voters at the polls and asking them to choose school board candidates who would restore girl only and boy only bathrooms and locker rooms in Loudoun County Public Schools,” According to ABC 7.

The news outlet explained that teens were supporting specific candidates, making statements to those approaching the polls. Students pointed out which candidates were “helping the students protect boys from coming in girls’ locker rooms” and “protecting students in schools.”

Kara Dansky, author of The Abolition of Sex: How the “Transgender” Agenda Harms Women and Girls, applauded the girls for “speaking out about the harms that “gender identity” poses to women and girls as a sex class.”

“To the Loudoun County girls who are getting actively involved in encouraging voters to vote for board members who will protect single-sex spaces, good for you,” she wrote.

“I’m sorry you have to do this. I’m sorry your district ignored your concerns. I wish you didn’t have to be doing this. Having single-sex locker rooms and bathrooms should be a no-brainer,” Dansky added.

“However, I’m very happy that you’re getting involved in this manner. If your school board won’t protect you, you need new board members who will. Well done!”

The Loudoun County School Board passed Policy 8040 in 2021 over the objections of many parents.

Since then, the district has been embroiled in controversy, with a skirt-wearing “gender fluid” boy sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl in the girls restroom at Loudoun’s Stone Bridge High School.

Loudoun County Schools Superintendent and Board dragged the girl’s father out of a board meeting, tried to cover up the incident and transferred the boy to another school – where he assaulted a second girl.

Also at Stone Bridge, a female student, identifying as transgender, recorded boys in a male locker room questioning her presence, with “one student expressing that he felt ‘uncomfortable’ about the situation,” Fox News reported.

Loudoun County Schools is facing a lawsuit from the boys who were punished for simply asking, “Why is there a girl in the boys’ locker room?”

Rather than disciplining the girl for illegally taping the boys, the district found the two high school boys guilty of sex discrimination and sexual harassment.

Loudoun County Public Schools is also facing an investigation by the Department of Education for multiple violations of Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in educational programs that receive federal funds.

Despite this, the school board dug in its heels and refused to follow the law.

So students have surged into action, campaigning for school board candidates who will protect their rights.

“For the past four years, students (of both sexes) have been demanding a policy change, and the district has essentially ignored them. So now, they’re taking matters into their own hands,” Dansky wrote.

BallotReady reports that more than 18,000 school board seats are on the ballot in 2025, with the results affecting millions of students and almost $800 billion in spending decisions.

National teachers unions, which promote transgender policies and ideology, pushed to have school board elections in off-years – when fewer voters cast ballots. As a result, BallotReady states that “research suggests that candidates endorsed by teachers’ unions win at exceptionally high rates.”

Teachers unions represent teachers – not parents and students, so unions don’t always have parents’ and students’ best interests in mind.

It’s vitally important that concerned citizens get informed about local school board races, supporting and voting for candidates who will protect students’ and parents’ rights.

Related Articles and Resources

Department of Education Launches Multiple Investigations Into Title IX Violations

Department of Education: Schools Embracing DEI Will Lose Funding

Department of Justice Launches Title IX Task Force to Protect Women’s Sports

DoEd Finds Northern Virginia School Districts Violated Title IX

‘Equipping Parents For Back-To-School’ – Updated Resource Empowers Parents

Federal Investigation Finds Loudoun County Violated Boys’ Title IX Rights

Irate Parents Excoriate Loudoun County Schools Superintendent and Board Over Sexual Abuse Coverup

Loudoun County Boys Raise $125,000 to Continue Title IX Case Against School District

Loudoun County Schools Defy Education Department Over Multiple Title IX Violations

Trump Signs Executive Order Protecting Women’s Sports and Spaces

Virginia School District Ignores Parents’ Opposition, Implements ‘Gender Identity’ Lessons

What’s Your School District’s ‘Transgender’ Policy?

Minnesota Allowed Boys to Compete on Six Girls Teams, Federal Investigation

The Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) and State High School League (MSHSL) illegally allowed boys to compete on six different girls’ sports teams for years, the Departments of Education (DoEd) and Health and Human Services (HHS) announced Wednesday.

The investigation found male students in Minnesota played girls high school Alpine and Nordic skiing, lacrosse, track and field, volleyball and fastpitch softball.

“Minnesota fails to recognize the fundamental biological differences between males and females —differences that justify single-sex teams and are essential to ensuring fair and safe competition for girls and women,” Paula M. Stannard, the Director of HHS’ Office for Civil Rights, wrote of the investigation.

DoEd and HHS will refer the case to the Department of Justice in ten days unless MDE, which oversees MSHSL, instructs all entities under its authority to:

  • Comply with Title IX by segregating athletics and private spaces by sex.
  • Define “male” and “female” by their true, biological definitions.
  • Submit annual certifications to the federal government attesting they comply with Title IX.

MDE and MSHSL, together, must additionally:

  • Revise their athletics guidelines to reflect federal, not state, law.
  • Retrain all employees to enforce Title IX correctly using new, federally approved materials.
  • Award all records and titles currently held by male athletes to the rightful, female winners.
  • Write letters to all rightful female winners apologizing on behalf of Minnesota for subjecting them to sex discrimination.

It’s frankly unlikely Minnesota will follow instructions. The state has spent months waging war against the federal government’s efforts to strengthen Title IX.

DoEd began investigating MSHSL in February after the league refused to uphold President Trump’s executive order prohibiting federally funded educational programs from allowing boys to play in girls sports.

Instead, MSHSL promised it would continue allowing students to participate in sports consistent with their “gender identity” rather than their biological sex, citing Minnesota state law prohibiting schools from “discriminating against” students based on their “gender identity.”

HHS launched its own investigation into MSHSL in June after Melissa Rothenberger, a boy, led Champlin Park High School to a girls state softball title. Rothenberger pitched all 21 innings of the tournament series, allowing only three hits. He finished with a shut-out final against the defending champions.

It’s unclear if Rothenberger, a junior, has undergone any transgender hormone interventions. MSHSL’s handbook does not require any. Any student can participate on an opposite-sex team provided their “gender identity” is a “consistent” and “sincerely held part of [their] core identity.”

Of course, there are no clear guidelines or protocols for determining what qualifies as “consistent” or “sincere.”

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison went on the offensive in April by suing to stop the enforcement of “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” and “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” another executive order defining sex as biological and binary.

The filing contends the orders violate Title IX, rather than strengthen it, because Title IX does not preclude states from defining “sex” to include “gender ideology.”

The Daily Citizen breaks down Ellison’s mystifying argument here.

Further, a Minnesota district court recently ruled against three female athletes who argued allowing boys to play girls sports violated their constitutional rights. All three, including at least one softball player, had been harmed by boys playing on their sports teams.

The Alliance Defending Freedom appealed the girl’s case, Female Athletes United v. Minnesota, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit last week.

The Daily Citizen will continue covering the hotly contested fight to protect girls sports in Minnesota.

Additional Articles and Resources

Minnesota Lawsuit Advances Shockingly Poor Attacks on Title IX

Female Athletes Challenge Minnesota Policy Forcing Them to Compete Against Males

Department of Education Launches Multiple Investigations into Title IX Violations

Yes, Girls Care When Boys Take Their Trophies

Cringe: Simone Biles Erupts at Riley Gaines for ‘Bullying’ Boys in Girls Sports

President Trump: ‘There are Only Two Genders: Male and Female’

Trump Signs Executive Order Protecting Women’s Sports and Spaces

Sign These Three Ballot Petitions to Protect Kids and Parental Rights in Colorado

Every child deserves safety, fairness and protection from irreversible, damaging medical procedures. This September, Protect Kids Colorado, a coalition of parents, grandparents and concerned citizens, is campaigning to uphold these rights — and they need your help.

Protect Kids Colorado is collecting signatures to put three measures on the ballot next November. The initiatives protect children from sexual predators, keep girls’ sports for girls and ban irreversible sex-change surgeries for minors.

Stop Child Sex Trafficking

Children should never be exploited. Exploitation of children for sex is especially heinous. This measure would impose life in prison without parole for anyone who buys or sells a minor for sex in Colorado.

It’s time to send a clear message — Colorado will not tolerate child sex trafficking.

Petition signatures for this initiative are due in February.

Protect Girls’ Sports

Female athletes deserve dignity, safety and equal opportunity. This citizen initiative protects female athletes by ensuring an even playing field.

The measure requires Colorado athletic teams be specifically designated as male, female or co-ed. It unequivocally declares only biological females will play in female sports.

Signature packets for this initiative are due in February.

Ban Irreversible Transgender Surgeries on Minors

Children should be safeguarded from making irreversible decisions about their reproductive future. This citizen initiative prohibits irreversible sex-change surgeries for anyone under the age of 18.

Petition signatures are due by in February.

From the Leaders of the Ballot Initiative

The co-chairs leading the ballot measure effort are Erin Lee of Protect Kids Colorado, Jennifer Sey, Founder of XX-XY and U.S. National Gymnastics Champion, and Mark “Oz” Geist, the hero credited with saving 25 people in the attack on a U.S. CIA outpost in Benghazi.

The three lay out their reasons for leading the effort in the video below.

In an exclusive interview with Focus on the Family’s Daily Citizen, Erin Lee, Executive Director of Protect Kids Colorado, said she thinks the citizen-initiated ballot measure process could be the tipping point needed to bring change to Colorado.

“I believe the passing of these three measures to protect girls’ sports, prohibit irreversible sex-change surgeries on children, and punish child sex traffickers will start a domino effect of massive change in Colorado and beyond.”

Lee insists that getting involved in this ballet measure process is one small way Coloradans could fundamentally change the state for good.

It’s easy to feel hopeless in this state, but the citizen ballot measure process allows We the People to take matters into our own hands. These measures are a way for everyone who cares about protecting kids and fixing Colorado to just do a little bit, to have conversations with friends and family, and in so doing be part of significant change.

This volunteer signature gathering effort brings us together and reverses radical policies that are actively harming children and families; but most importantly, if enough Coloradans get involved, it has the power to fundamentally shift the culture of this state. 

Lee shared this video on X to announce the official launch date of the campaign effort to put these initiatives on the ballot.

Next Steps

Protect Kids Colorado has a goal of collecting 200,000 valid signatures per initiative by this Christmas to qualify for next year’s November ballot.

Focus on the Family supports all three ballot initiatives.

Here are six ways you can help these measures get across the finish line.

  1. Sign all three petitions.
  2. Carry a petition and collect signatures.
  3. Forward this article to other Colorado voters and urge them to sign the petitions.
  4. Volunteer your time to the cause.
  5. Donate to Protect Kids Colorado.
  6. Pray that these initiatives would qualify for the ballot and win next November!

Getting these measures on the ballot is the first step. The next step is winning the election next November. 

To learn more about collecting signatures or to find out where you can sign a petition visit: https://www.protectkidscolorado.org/.