Girls Sports

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.

Election Aftermath: Americans Aren’t Losing Their Rights

Citizens mourning the results of last week’s presidential election are taking to social media, filming and posting reactions including screaming, more intense screaming, “screaming into the abyss,” crying, proclaiming “devastation,” head shaving, name calling, threats of violence and mental breakdowns.

The videos reflect some Americans’ sincere and anguished belief that the coming administration will take away American freedoms — up to and including reinstating slavery. But neither President-elect Trump’s proposed policies nor his campaign rhetoric suggest any American rights are in danger.

Let’s break it down.

Rumors about Mr. Trump taking away women’s rights have to do with abortion. Vice President Kamala Harris repeatedly asserted the President-elect would enforce a national abortion ban “with or without Congress.”

Ironically, the President-elect’s position on abortion has either frustrated or disappointed many pro-life advocates. He opposes late-term abortion and staunchly supports states’ rights to determine their own abortion policy. In October, he claimed he would veto any national abortion ban to protect states’ rights.

These facts did little to dampen the panic surrounding Trump’s supposed “war on women.” In a dire video warning about America’s Trumpian future, comedian Kathy Griffen claimed, “If your son gets a girl pregnant and they’re both fifteen, then you, of course, will force that they marry and keep having as many Duggars as possible.”

“I’m not being hyperbolic,” Griffen doubled down. “I’m not being dramatic.”

The author believes Griffen is, in fact, being hyperbolic and dramatic.

Trump and his allies have never supported, or even floated, marriage contracts or child quotas. Griffen’s predictions are wild extrapolations of a faulty set of facts — and all too representative of the kinds of narratives popping up online and in person.

One high school teacher vented her distress to her students, warning them,

[The Trump administration] is talking about deporting people. If you’re from Central America, they want to deport you. If you’re from South America, they want to deport you. He’s talking about deporting black people back to Africa.

Deportation is part of the Trump administration’s goal to beef-up border security. From fiscal years 2021 to 2024, Customs and Border Patrol agents encountered more than six million illegal immigrants, a 59% increase from the more than two million encountered from fiscal years 2016 to 2019.

A significant number of these arrivals have had criminal records or ties to gangs and terrorist organizations. At least 435,000 of these bad actors have been released into the U.S. to await immigration trial, according to the Department of Homeland Security. In some cases, repeat offenders have been allowed to kill American citizens, including Laken Riley, Lizbeth Medina, Rachel Morin, Jocelyn Nungaray and Kayla Hamilton.

Mr. Trump and his border czar nominee, Tom Homan, say finding and deporting these violent offenders will be priority one, something a teacher of vulnerable students should be excited about. As for deporting black people back to Africa — suffice to say it’s never been part of Trump’s platform.

Also not a part of Trump’s platform? Taking away LGBT “rights” or endorsing violence against LGBT-identified individuals.

The President-elect plans to reinforce some basic protections for biological women, namely restoring the integrity of Title IX and stopping men from participating in women’s sports. He further plans to stop forcing taxpayers to pay for transgender surgeries and keep schools from promoting gender ideology.

These policies are popular with most Americans for reasons the Daily Citizen frequently enumerates. Notably, however, they do not stop a person from being gender confused or pursuing transgender surgeries as an adult and on their own dime.

Neither do these policies incite violence against anyone. If anything, they are a repudiation of violence against women.

Still, on TikTok, one user forcefully opined, “It’s going to be hell on Earth once they strip away everyone’s rights that isn’t a straight, white, cis[gender] man.”

Post-election hysteria illustrates a deeply sad picture of Americans laboring under a lie. No American is losing their rights. Love him or hate him, the election of Donald Trump shouldn’t send anyone into an existential crisis.

Let’s keep it real, folks — and by that, I mean let’s get a grip on reality.

Additional Articles and Resources

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Debate Over Immigration Labels Obscures Seriousness of Laken Riley’s Death

Illegal Immigrant to Appear in Court for Death of Texas Teen, Illustrates Violent Trend

Fentanyl Overdoses Rise, Connection to Illegal Immigration

Taxpayers Will Fund Violent Inmate’s Transgender Surgery, Judge Rules

Back to School With Sexualized Lessons

Title IX Redefinition of ‘Sex’ Faces Defiance and a Flood of Lawsuits

Appeals Courts Affirm Rulings Stopping the DOE’s Rewrite of Tilte IX

Huge Title IX Win: Department of Education’s 2021 Interpretation Ruled ‘Unlawful’

Courts Defend Title IX from Department of Health and Human Services

Olympic Women’s Boxing Champ is Officially a Man

Imane Khelif, the reigning gold medalist in Olympic women’s boxing, is, in fact, a man, a medical report obtained by Reduxx confirms. The findings highlight the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) willful failure to protect the safety of female Olympians and the integrity of the Paris Games.  

Khelif entered the contest under a cloud of suspicion. The International Boxing Association (IBA) had disqualified him from women’s boxing a year earlier after two independent blood tests concluded he had XY chromosomes.

The IOC knew about these tests but declined to investigate or bar Khelif from competing. Instead, officials relied heavily on 2024 Olympic regulations identifying women solely by their female passports. Any questions about Khelif’s biology were quickly rebuffed or minimized.

“These boxers are entirely eligible,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams lectured, referring to Khelif and silver medalist Lu Yu-Ting, who also has XY chromosomes. “They are women on their passports. It’s not helpful to start stigmatizing like this. We all have a responsibility not to turn it into some kind of witch-hunt.”

IOC President Thomas Bach doubled down: “We are talking about women’s boxing. We have two boxers who were born as women, raised as women, who have passports as women and who have competed for many years as women. This is a clear definition of a woman.”

Bach later claimed, “There was never any doubt of [Khelif and Yu-Ting] being women.”

Bach is wrong on two counts. A woman is a human with XX chromosomes or, alternatively, a human designed to produce large gametes. Living as a woman or having a female passport does not make someone female.

The IBA blood tests also raised substantial doubts about Khelif’s biological sex. His opening bout against Italy’s Angela Carini only raised suspicions higher. If the IOC had investigated these claims, it might have discovered that Khelif had been diagnosed with a rare disorder of sexual development (DSD) in 2023 —one that absolutely excludes him from competing against women.  

In August 2023, expert endocrinologists Souymaya Fedala and Jacques Young determined Khelif had 5-Alpha-Reductase deficiency, a developmental disorder that only affects males.

Infants with 5-alpha produce too little dihydrotestosterone, which causes them to be born with ambiguous genitalia. Doctors often mistake babies with 5-alpha for girls. But, importantly, this disorder does not stop the production or effect of testosterone. A person with 5-alpha will go through male puberty —which is when most find out their true sex.

5-alpha is a terrible, disorienting disorder. It also categorically disqualifies sufferers from participating in female sports. Fedala and Young’s analysis found Khelif had XY chromosomes, normal male levels of testosterone and male reproductive organs. That means he has the same chromosomal and hormonal advantages all men have over women athletically, including heavier bones, bulkier musclers, broader shoulder and larger hearts and lungs.

Khelif and his coaches received this diagnosis more than a year before his Olympic debut. He and his team decided to compete anyway, indulging in a televised display of violence made more shocking by its intentionality.

The IOC had all the information they needed to stop Khelif from participating. The barest hint of an investigation would have revealed the larger report released by Reduxx — Khelif’s coach had already alluded to it publicly.

Instead, the IOC gave Khelif a gold medal.

The whole debacle represents an egregious failure of the organization’s mission to “encourage and support the promotion of ethics and good governance in sport … and to dedicate its efforts to ensuring that, in sport, the spirit of fair play prevails, and violence is banned.”

Marshi Smith, co-founder of the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, puts it this way as she spoke to Reduxx:

The IOC and the Algerian Olympic Committee are complicit in endorsing male violence against women under the guise of public entertainment on the world’s largest sport stage. They stood by as women were subjected to physical assault for spectacle, stripped of safety, fairness, and their lifetime achievements. All those involved must face swift and serious consequences.

Smith continues:

We urge leaders in sports and governments worldwide to condemn the IOC and demand a public commitment to ensuring fair and safe sports for women from this day forward. This must never be allowed to happen again.

First and foremost, the IOC must officially define what a woman is, rather than leaving it up to individual nations. Checking passports does nothing to determine a competitor’s biological advantage. IOC officials must find their courage to adhere to truth, instead of ideology.

On behalf of the female population, I hereby exhort the IOC to, well, grow a pair.

Additional Articles and Resources

Two Men Win Olympic Gold for Battering Women

Olympic-Sized Stupidity: It’s Wrong for Men to Fight Women

Olympic Privilege? Officials Protect Sports – But Only at the Highest Level

Male and Female Biology Matters

World Rugby Finds Men and Women are Different, Announces New Guidelines Protecting Elite Women Players