Supreme Court Upholds States’ Right to Protect Women’s Sports

By Suzanne Littrell

The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that Idaho and West Virginia may keep girls’ and women’s school sports limited to biological females.

In simple terms, the Court said that Title IX does not require schools to allow transgender girls or women to compete on female teams. The states argued that their laws are meant to protect fairness, safety, and athletic opportunities for biological women and girls, and the Court agreed that those laws are legally permitted.

This does not mean every state must adopt the same policy. It means individual states are allowed to make laws protecting female sports based on biological sex without violating federal law.

Where Do the States Stand on Women’s Sports? The Supreme Court’s recent ruling involving Idaho and West Virginia was an important decision, but it does not require every state to reserve girls’ and women’s sports for biological females.

What the ruling does say is that states have the legal right to create sports categories based on biological sex.

Right now, 29 states have laws or statewide policies that generally prevent athletes who were born male from competing on girls’ and women’s teams.

Those states include:

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.

The other 21 states do not currently have the same type of statewide restriction. They include:

California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin.

That does not necessarily mean every school in those states follows the exact same rules. Policies can differ between school districts, athletic associations, private schools and individual sports organizations.

College sports are also handled differently. The NCAA currently limits competition on women’s teams to athletes who were assigned female at birth.

The Supreme Court has made it clear that states are legally allowed to protect female sports based on biological sex. However, it has not required every state to do so.

That means this discussion is far from over. Those of us who believe girls and women deserve fair and protected athletic opportunities must continue speaking up respectfully, clearly and consistently.

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