Colorado parents, students denounce ‘transgender’ sports policy they say endangers girls

Colorado students and parents are pushing back against state athletics rules that allow biological males to compete in girls’ sports, arguing the policy endangers female athletes and erases protections for women.

The Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA) currently permits athletes to compete based on self-declared “gender identity” rather than biological sex. Its policy states that a “ transgender student shall participate in accordance with their gender identity,” defining gender identity as “an individual’s internal sense of gender.”

Critics say the rule trades biological reality for ideology and leaves female athletes unprotected.

“The current CHSAA policy does not protect the fundamental rights of our female high school athletes in Colorado,” Sarah Kent, the mother of a senior volleyball player at Liberty High School in Fort Collins, told CatholicVote. “Our daughters are being deprived of the fair and equal opportunity to participate in high school athletics that Title IX was designed to protect.”

Kent said the CHSAA rule leaves schools little flexibility in how to respond when concerns about fairness or safety arise.

Erin Lee, executive director of Protect Kids Colorado, told CatholicVote she first raised awareness about reports of a biological male competing on a girls’ high school team in northern Colorado. She said she has spent months supporting girls in the Thompson Valley School District who have repeatedly pleaded with their school board to address the issue.

“The school board is incredibly woke — six to one — and has just refused to address it,” Lee told CatholicVote.

She said the situation stems from Colorado statute CRS 22-1-143, which requires districts to adopt policies allowing students to participate in sports according to “gender identity.”

“That statute is a blatant violation of Title IX and of President Trump’s executive order,” she said. “It’s put girls all over the state and their families and school administrators in a really difficult position where they’re unable to advocate for girls’ safety, fairness, and dignity.”

President Donald Trump’s order, signed Feb. 5, affirmed that Title IX protections do not permit men to compete in women’s sports and instructed schools and athletic associations to revert to the law’s original interpretation.

Lee noted that one Colorado district has already defied both the state statute and CHSAA policy by designating single-sex spaces.

“School District 49 has directly defied statute and the CHSAA policy and just recently passed a policy at their school board that designates single-sex spaces,” she said. “They know very clearly they’re in defiance of statute and CHSAA policy, but they are leading the charge on setting an example for other districts to follow suit.”

She added that the policy’s author is Colorado lawyer Brad Miller.

In March, several female athletes appeared before the Thompson School District Board in Loveland, Colorado, to testify against CHSAA’s policy. One of them, Cora Cox, a senior girls’ soccer captain at Thompson Valley High School at the time, said her team was forced to compete against a biological male last year.

Cox opened the meeting with a prayer before telling the board that her goal was “not to shame or put down any athlete,” but to ensure her teammates could play safely and fairly. She said the male player was physically stronger and faster and left one of her teammates injured. Another teammate, she added, was required to change in the same locker room as the male athlete.

Reflecting on the school board meeting, Cox told CatholicVote that it was “heartbreaking” to realize the CHSAA policy didn’t protect them.

“It was just disappointing and heartbreaking that the CHSAA wasn’t able to protect us,” she said. “They never put our safety or fairness first. I’ve played soccer since I was three, and all of us worked our entire lives for those opportunities — college scholarships, the chance to win high school state — and it’s frustrating when a biological male is allowed to compete with us. It really changed everything.”

Cox, who graduated this summer, said the experience has made her worried for younger athletes.

“Even though I’ve graduated, my little sister is a junior now,” Cox said. “As this becomes more normalized, all of these younger girls are going to have to grow up with it in their teams and sports clubs. That’s really hard to watch.”

She said that while she received quiet support from some teachers and staff, others criticized her for speaking up, and the board “didn’t take to heart anything” she and her teammates said.

“It went in one ear and out the other,” she added.

With no action from state leaders, Lee told CatholicVote that parents and students are now stepping forward to demand change.

“It’s left these girls in a position where they have to speak up for themselves, where they’re pleading with their school board for support and for protection, and it feels like an impossible conundrum,” Lee told CatholicVote. “We don’t want anyone to be left out, but it’s imperative that we protect and safeguard girls’ single sex spaces.”

Lee’s organization is partnering with CatholicVote on a proposed ballot measure in Colorado that would restore single-sex athletics statewide by requiring all school sports leagues to be designated male, female, or co-ed.