The U.S. Supreme Court just moved us much closer to leveling the playing field.
In a decision that defends justice and biological reality, the court upheld laws in West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Idaho (Little v. Hecox) that preserve fairness and safety for female athletes by keeping men out of women’s sports. The ruling effectively upholds the laws of 27 states; now the other 23 states need to act.
By affirming the clear meaning of the law and common sense, the Supreme Court’s decision also affirmed state governments’ ability to recognize the inherent biological differences between men and women. In doing so, the justices have thrown legal cold water on years of cultural and political pressure to deny that reality—efforts that have led thousands of girls and young women like us into senseless defeat, discouragement, and, for some, even physical danger.
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We didn’t compete to win “participation” trophies. And we didn’t train to lose before we even stepped up to the starting line. So we’re deeply grateful that now, by supporting states’ legal authority to keep men out of women’s sports, the court has reasserted decades-long efforts to promote women’s athletics as separate from men’s sports. The court validated fair competition rather than an increasingly destructive laboratory for social experimentation.
Most Americans will appreciate this. They know men can’t become women. They know differences between the sexes run deep and can’t be erased with drugs and surgeries that do terrible damage to those who undergo them. As Justice Clarence Thomas explained in his concurring opinion today, “Men and boys with gender dysphoria are not women or girls, even if they believe that they are.”
The impact of this forcible “fairness” has done damage to countless girls and women nationwide: damaging their chances for greater athletic and, through scholarships, academic success; discarding years of hard work, training, and sacrifice; in some cases, doing them serious physical harm; and, in many more, draining away the purest joys of athletic competition.
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We know. Both of us were forced to compete against a male in Idaho track and field and cross-country events; as a result, we both fell significantly in our respective athletic rankings.
Other women—including Adaleia Cross, who competed on the same team and in the same events as B.P.J., were among the approximately 400 female athletes in West Virginia displaced across a three-year period by a single male athlete competing in their events. That same male athlete was given access to girls’ locker and shower areas and allegedly repeatedly sexually harassed Adaleia and other girls.
The unwillingness of school officials to properly address Adaleia’s complaints is a story echoed in other schools all over the country, where women and girls have been compelled to forfeit personal privacy, physical safety, and athletic success in deference to a dangerous cultural trend and an ironclad political agenda.
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That is another reason why this week’s legal victory is so important. Twenty-three states still aren’t protecting women’s sports. This week’s decision affirms for officials and concerned citizens in all those states the legal protection and moral incentive to change that—to restore to this generation of young women their right to equal opportunity, personal safety, and the lifelong benefits of fair athletic competition.
We would first like to thank God for His strength and hand in this effort. We’re also thankful for all those who have stood for truth. We are grateful to West Virginia Attorney General J.B. McCuskey and Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador for having the courage to stand up for every girl in their states. And to our attorneys at Alliance Defending Freedom, who worked alongside them and fought so hard for us: Thank you. We couldn’t have done this without you.
We’re also thankful for every parent, coach, and community member who showed up—at school board meetings, in statehouses, and online—and refused to stay quiet. And to the women athletes who used their own platforms to speak out: Riley Gaines, Wendy Enderle, Stephanie Turner, and countless others. We see you, and we’re grateful you had our backs.
But particularly, this week, we give thanks for a decision that gives us justice and points our nation back to common sense… to reality… to the truth. Over the last few years, so many people have worked tirelessly to promote the lie that men can become women—that one sex should step aside and let another one destroy all that so many women struggled for so long to make possible: equality, fairness, and opportunity.
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The girls and women athletes of this country have paid a terrible price for those lies and that destruction. But this decision is the beginning of the end of all that—a great, long step back toward justice and common sense. There are more long steps to come, but they will be easier now.
The playing field isn’t level yet—but it’s a lot closer than it was.
Editor’s note: Former Idaho State University track athletes Madison Kenyon and Mary Kate Marshall are parties to the women’s sports cases that the U.S. Supreme Court decided on June 30.
Mary Kate Marshall is a former track athlete at Idaho State University.
