Women’s center to Supreme Court: Allowing boys in girls’ sports is ‘unfair and damaging’

The Independent Women’s Law Center recently filed two amicus curiae briefs with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of laws in West Virginia and Idaho aimed at preserving women’s and girls’ sports. 

The filings come after the high court agreed to hear West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little v. Hecox, two cases that involve students who identify as transgender suing the states for barring males from competing in female athletic divisions.

Idaho and West Virginia want the high court to reverse rulings that prohibit them from enforcing their laws. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the cases in July, but it has not yet scheduled a hearing.

“The brief filed by Independent Women’s Law Center tells the stories you haven’t heard of young female athletes pushed into unfair and damaging situations in violation of Title IX, all to elevate a male’s feelings,” May Mailman, director of the Independent Women’s Law Center, stated in a news release. 

One is the story of college student Selina Soule and her experiences with biological males who participated in women’s track and field. 

Soule is a four-time track-and-field national qualifier who “lost out on qualifying for the indoor New England regional track and field championships by just two spots, with the top two spots being taken by males,” according to the brief. 

She “was robbed of the chance to show off [her] talents in front of college scouts, perform at a much faster track, and possibly put a better time out to put [her] in better standing with college recruitment,” the law center wrote in its argument to the Supreme Court.

The conservative women’s organization also argues that allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports undermines decades of progress made under Title IX. The friend-of-the-court briefs point to research on the physiological differences between men and women and the resulting competitive imbalance. 

Two conservative leaders who spoke with The College Fix emphasized the significance of the upcoming case.

“Over the last decade, the far left has tried to impose their beliefs about gender on the rest of the country, including the idea that men can somehow become women. This idea goes against basic biology,” Paul Dupont, policy director at the American Principles Project, said.

“Men who believe they are women still remain men, and female athletes should not be forced to compete against them,” Dupont told The Fix in a recent email. The American Principles Project is a national organization that engages directly in campaigns and advocacy on behalf of traditional family values. 

Despite Title IX and President Donald Trump’s executive order to protect women’s sports, the issue is still being contested; now, the Supreme Court has agreed to get involved, he said.

“The far-left argument that the Constitution or Title IX requires that men be allowed to compete athletically as women is absurd. In fact, Title IX was passed specifically to ensure women have their own opportunities independent of men. The Court needs to recognize that,” Dupont said. 

Mary Hasson, an attorney and senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, also weighed in, telling The Fix that she supports the Independent Women’s Law Center’s arguments. 

“The Supreme Court’s role is to interpret the law according to the Constitution,” Hasson said in a recent email. “Title IX — which granted females equal access to educational opportunities, including sports, recognizes the fact of sexual difference.

“I expect that the Court will hold that ‘sex’ discrimination means ‘sex,’ and does not include ‘gender identity’ protections.  I agree with the IWF briefs,” she said.

The EPPC is an institute that applies Jewish and Christian traditions to contemporary questions of law, culture, and politics. 

“We unequivocally oppose giving males (regardless of how they identify)  access to female-only sports.  Permitting males, who are presenting themselves as ‘girls’ or ‘women,’ in female sports denies the reality of sexual difference, endangers females, and results in unfair competition and the loss of opportunity for females,”  Hasson said. 

Hasson told The Fix that state and federal laws must be “be based on truth — the reality of immutable sexual differences between men and women (males and females).”

However, “under the Obama and Biden administrations we saw an all-out effort to redefine ‘sex discrimination’ to include ‘gender identity’ (which is merely a person’s self-perception, regardless of and even in contradiction to the person’s sex),” she said.

Another problem is state laws that allow people to change the sex listed on their birth certificate, Hasson said.

“That created confusion, undermined the historical veracity of government records, and opened the door for courts and legislators to erode sex-based protections,” she told The Fix. 

In many states, it is still possible for a person to simply declare him or herself to “be” the opposite sex and get government documents to match, she said.

Ensuring that state and federal law define sex based on immutable biology, not “identity” or self-perception, is “critically important” to avoid further discrepancy,” she said.

Dupont with the American Principles Project said he would like Congress to pass legislation that recognizes this.

“While it is encouraging that 27 states across the country have passed laws explicitly protecting women’s sports, there are still 23 states where female athletes are not protected,” he told The Fix.

“The Trump administration is doing all it can at the federal level to change this, but to ensure a future far-left president doesn’t undo this progress, Congress must pass federal legislation codifying President Trump’s executive actions,” Dupont said.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the transgender athlete in the Hecox v. Little case, did not respond to The College Fix’s emailed requests for comment. The Independent Women’s Law Center also did not respond.

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