A coalition of 207 female lawmakers and 38 family policy organizations from across the U.S. has filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court, urging the justices to uphold laws in Idaho and West Virginia that keep male athletes out of women’s and girls’ sports competitions.
Led by Idaho Republican State Rep. Barbara Ehardt, the author and principal sponsor of Idaho’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, the brief was submitted in support of the states in the consolidated cases Little v. Hecox and West Virginia v. B.P.J., ahead of oral arguments before the Supreme Court on Jan. 13.
Both laws are intended to preserve women’s sports by preventing males from competing in female categories, a safeguard lawmakers say is essential to upholding Title IX and protecting decades of hard-won progress in establishing protections that would be overturned if the Ninth Circuit’s ruling imposing “gender identity” as the legal standard for athletic participation is allowed to stand.
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All 207 signatories to the brief are Republican legislators. According to a press release from two of the family policy organizations, Kansas Family Foundation and True North Legal, emailed to CatholicVote, every lawmaker who signed the brief has either authored, sponsored, introduced, or publicly supported legislation in her own state to protect women’s sports.
The brief argues that the sole reason women’s sports programs exist is because of biological differences between men and women. “Since the existence of separate women’s sports programs is justified by biological differences between women and men, there are exceedingly persuasive reasons to determine eligibility for such programs using biological criteria rather than a person’s sense of gender,” it states.
The lawmakers warn abandoning biological criteria for women’s sports could have far-reaching and damaging consequences. “If this fundamental change is allowed to occur, it is likely to have effects on women’s sports — and on the nationwide consensus in favor of them — that are at best deeply uncertain, and at worst will fundamentally alter women’s sports until they are unrecognizable.”
Renee Carlson, General Counsel for True North Legal and co-author of the brief, stated in the release, “It only takes one male participant in a girls-only event or team to change the outcome of an entire female sporting event. Female athletes of all ages deserve a level playing field. It’s about fairness, opportunity, and following the law.”
“Title IX was written as an ‘exclusive’ document for girls and women to have the same opportunities as boys and men,” Rep. Ehardt, a former NCAA Division I athlete and coach, said in the release. “It’s time this intent be upheld by the highest court in the nation.”
The Supreme Court’s decision will resolve conflicting lower-court rulings and could set a national precedent on how “gender identity” is treated in the context of athletic eligibility and Title IX enforcement.Meanwhile, 130 Democratic members of Congress have submitted a competing brief supporting “transgender” athletes’ rights to compete according to their claimed “gender identities.”
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