This Former High School Athlete Wants to Join Florida Lawsuit to Defend Fairness in Women’s Sports

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act into law in June to keep sports separated based on biological sex. That means male athletes pretending to be women can’t join sports teams designated for female athletes.

People who oppose such protection laws have asked courts to block them. Florida is in litigation defending its law. Selina Soule, who witnessed Gov. DeSantis signing the bill into law, has asked to intervene in the lawsuit.

Soule ran track at a high school in Connecticut. She’d trained for years to be the best, and she was one of the top five female sprinters in the state. But she lost competitions because two male athletes came in first and second.

“And here’s the thing about the two biological males that took the top two girls’ medals in the state of Connecticut,” Soule said in a PragerU video. “Their times were not even good enough to qualify them to compete in the state championships on the boys’ team.” The boys ended up winning 15 state championship titles running against girls.

Soule and a group of high school track runners filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education and a federal lawsuit against Connecticut over its policy that allows boys to compete on girls’ teams.

Soule is still dealing with the “transgender” issue — in Connecticut and Florida. She’s now a sophomore running track at Florida Atlantic University.

Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents the Connecticut athletes, also represents Soule in the Florida case.

“If someone does not speak up for women, I fear that we could see the end of women’s sports,” she said. “There will be boys’ sports and co-ed sports; but women’s sports as we know it will be gone. I believe that ensuring an equal playing field for women to be champions in their own sport is a women’s rights issue. But this isn’t just about fair play and winning for me. I want to protect the fairness and safety of women’s sports for female athletes all over Florida. I want to ensure that future generations of women have access to the same equal athletic opportunities that shaped me and my love of sports.”

At least 37 states have introduced bills in 2021 to protect fair competition for women in sports, and eight states have passed laws: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Mississippi, Montana, Tennessee, and West Virginia. Idaho was the first state 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 matter comes down to whether the government requires men to take testosterone suppression drugs for a year before competing against women. A British sports journal concluded that men still outperform women even after taking suppression drugs for a year.

Photo credit: Alliance Defending Freedom