Now 23 States Are Trying to Save Women’s Sports

Last month, seven states were working on bills to bar biological males from competing in women’s sports. At the time of this writing, the number has risen to 23.

President Joe Biden signed an executive order that calls on government schools to allow boys to compete against girls in sports and share girls’ private spaces like restrooms and locker rooms.

State legislatures are doing their part to protect not only fair competition for women in sports but their modesty, privacy, and safety in restrooms and locker rooms.

Save Women’s Sports has a list of the 23 states with measures in various stages of the legislative process: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia. Idaho was the first state to act. In 2020, Governor Brad Little signed the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act into law, but a federal judge blocked it. The Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge David C. Nye said the law that protects the integrity of women’s sports is likely unconstitutional, and the issue hinges on whether the government requires males to take testosterone suppression drugs for a year before competing against women and girls.

But according to a study released by the British Journal of Sports Medicine, suppressing testosterone for a year doesn’t turn men into women. After a year of taking testosterone-suppressing drugs, men are still stronger, bigger, and faster than women. The NCAA, World Athletics, and the International Olympics Committee require men who want to compete against women to take these drugs for at least a year.

Congress has reintroduced the so-called Equality Act, which will codify Biden’s executive order to essentially end women’s sports and violate women’s privacy in intimate spaces. If passed, the law would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to bar discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. As with any law mandating special protection for sexual behavior, Christians should be concerned.

“Many in our nation respectfully disagree on important matters such as marriage and human sexuality,” Alliance Defending Freedom General Counsel Kristen Waggoner said. “Unfortunately, the Equality Act criminalizes these fundamental beliefs held by major faith groups since the dawn of time and, instead, demands absolute uniformity of thought. The freedom to live peaceably according to our beliefs is a fundamental right, resting in our human dignity and codified by the First Amendment. The Equality Act dares to treat reasonable people as hostile to the state and unfit to participate in the marketplace. Our nation can and must do better.”