West
Female athletes anxiously await Supreme Court decision to take up transgender participation in women's sports
The future of women’s sports may hang in the balance as female athletes wait to see if the Supreme Court will take up cases addressing transgender participation in female sports.
Former college soccer player Lainey Armistead told Fox News Digital that she joined Alliance Defending Freedom’s (ADF) litigation on behalf of future generations of women and girls in the hopes that they can be afforded the same experiences she had growing up playing soccer on a level playing field.
Armistead attended West Virginia State University where she got a full scholarship to play soccer and serve as team captain, but said when she heard about the struggles facing other women and girls, including losing their spot on the podium, missing out on scholarships and as well as instances where biological men were allowed in locker rooms, on the field and in hotel rooms with other female athletes, she felt compelled to stand up for other women and girls.
“It was so amazing and formative for me to be able to play with my brothers,” she said. “But my dad would always say: ‘Take it easy on your sister and don’t get too intense because you could really hurt her’ and I used to be a little indignant on that point, but I did know what my dad knew and what my brothers knew, which was that I was biologically different.”
Lainey Armistead (Alliance Defending Freedom)
UNITED NATIONS HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST CALLS FOR EQUALITY AND STRONGER PROTECTIONS FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS IN SPORTS
“They were stronger, better and faster than me from a young age and I don’t want to admit that my younger brother was always faster than me, but unfortunately that’s true,” she said to Fox News Digital.
West Virginia passed the Save Women Sports Act in 2021, prohibiting transgender girls from competing against biological girls in sports.
“I was never faced with that difficult decision to determine whether I should play or not play against a biological male because of the West Virginia law that protected me,” she said.
However, other athletes in the state weren’t given the same opportunity. Despite the state law, changes to Title IX have set up a battle royale between state and federal law.
The Biden-Harris administration is attempting to redefine sex discrimination through its changes to Title IX to include gender identity, which critics argue would gut women’s equal opportunities in sports and threaten their privacy and safety in private spaces. The changes were implemented nationwide in August in states where the rule doesn’t face legal challenges.
Lainey Armistead (Alliance Defending Freedom)
When the West Virginia law was passed, a 13-year-old transgender middle school student in the state, identified as BPJ in litigation, successfully obtained a federal court injunction to compete in female sports.
Under the injunction, BPJ was permitted to compete with women and girls in the state of West Virginia. Adaleia Cross, a high school freshman and girls’ track-and-field athlete in West Virginia, has alleged that BPJ, who used the female locker room, sexually harassed her, repeatedly beat her in track and field, before she was finally getting edged out of competing in throwing events.
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As a result, ADF is representing Adaleia Cross’ parents on behalf of their daughter as part of a Tennessee lawsuit against Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, alleging that the Biden administration’s Title IX update amounts to an illegal rewrite.
Rachel Rouleau, legal counsel for ADF, told Fox News Digital that girls deserve to compete on a level playing field, which ADF is arguing in its multitude of cases making their way through the legal system.
“Unfortunately, over the past three years, we have seen this one male athlete displace almost 300 girls,” Rouleau said. “That really just shows really the impact of even one male athlete being allowed onto the women’s sports teams and that’s really why Lainey got involved, because she doesn’t want this to happen to more women and girls across the country.”
Lainey Armistead (Alliance Defending Freedom)
In Armistead’s case, the district court said that the West Virginia Save Women’s Sports law was consistent with Title IX, but the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the decision.
In another case at the Supreme Court, ADF is representing two female athletes in defense of the Idaho Save Women’s Sports law that is being challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union in Hecox v. Little.
“That’s why we’re appealing this case up to the Supreme Court so that they will find what the district court found, that this is consistent with Title IX,” Rouleau said to Fox News Digital. “Title IX was passed originally to create these equal opportunities for women and girls and that’s what West Virginia’s law does. We’re hopeful that the Supreme Court will uphold that.”
“This redefinition of sex to include gender identity is so insidious in so many different ways and really is harming opportunities for students, teachers, female athletes, males and females,” she added.
COLLEGE ATHLETE, OLYMPIAN CALL ON UN TO SUPPORT FAIRNESS IN GIRLS SPORTS: ‘STAND UP FOR HUMAN RIGHTS OF WOMEN’
Lainey Armistead (Alliance Defending Freedom)
Right now, there are 26 states where the Title IX changes aren’t in effect because of preliminary injunctions, which means that while the litigation continues, these laws will not go into effect in those areas, Rouleau said.
“These changes really do conflict with the states that have passed Save Women’s Sports laws,” she said to Fox News Digital. “There are 25 states across the country that have Save Women’s Sports laws like West Virginia and Idaho’s and these Title IX changes would supersede these laws, putting women like Lainey and other female athletes in danger and forcing them to compete on the same sports teams.”
“It’s not even just the sports aspect with these Title IX changes, it’s also the privacy and safety aspect, because girls and women can’t compete on a level playing field if they can’t even change safely in their own locker rooms and bathrooms,” she added. “That’s a really important part of these changes, just to ensure that women have a private space to change and to use the restroom with their teammates.”
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If the University of Utah football season were a movie, it would be “The Perfect Storm.” You know the story. Captain Whittingham and the gang catch a lot of big fish and think they’re headed for a big pay day. There are lots of warning signs that trouble is coming, but, yeah, they sail on — right into the perfect storm.
Parts are flying off the boat. Members of the crew are being thrown to the floor and getting injured, especially first mate Cam Rising. Senior XO Andy Ludwig jumps overboard. The boat is heavy and slow. They are thrown for a loss, over and over … and then they get steamrolled.
Everything that can go wrong, goes wrong.
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Get an inclusive look inside BYU Football’s 1984 National Championship season.
Meanwhile, their neighbors, BYU, are living in La La Land. Everything they touch is gold. Everything that can go right, goes right. It’s one big Hallmark movie, with Reese Witherspoon in the lead. Sometimes it looks like they’re in trouble, but, nope. Take the Kansas State game. The offense slept through the whole thing, but the team won 38-9 behind punt returns, fumble returns and interceptions. It was like Christmas, a birthday and an anniversary rolled into one half of a game.
Then there was Baylor, which outgained BYU by 120 yards — and lost.
The Cougars are living a charmed life.
Exactly no one saw any of this coming. Can we all agree that preseason polls — and polls in general — are fun but worthless. In both the AP and ESPN preseason polls, Utah was 12th and BYU unranked (the Cougars also didn’t get a single vote for the “others receiving votes,” which was 17 teams deep).
Utah was picked to finish first the Big 12; BYU was picked to finish 13th.
As of this week: BYU is first, Utah 13th.
BYU is 8-0, Utah 4-4 and riding a four-game losing streak. BYU is ranked No. 9 in the national polls; Utah has fallen out of the rankings.
They flipped the script.
Utah and BYU will meet in Rice-Eccles Stadium on Saturday.
Utah’s season is an unmitigated disaster. Much has been made of the loss of injury-prone quarterback Cam Rising, who missed all of last season while recovering from surgery. He played one and a half games this season before getting injured again, only to return for one game weeks later and incurring another injury on the second play of the game, one that sidelined him for the season. He could return for an eighth season next year, which invites comparisons to the old bit in “Tommy Boy.”
Lots of people graduate in seven years!
Yeah, they’re called doctors.
Anyway, the point is — and Coach Kyle Whittingham would be the first to say this — a solid program should be able to weather the loss of any one player without falling off a cliff. The Utes managed to win eight games without Rising last season. In retrospect, heading into the 2024 season maybe they should have planned better for a potential injury to Rising, especially given his long list of injuries. Instead, they replaced him with a true freshman quarterback, one who was in the state high school playoffs a year ago.
If the transfer portal were a physical place, you wouldn’t want to stand in front of the doors this winter at Utah. There’s going to be a stampede. Also, the Utes will go quarterback shopping.
On the 40th anniversary of BYU’s unbeaten national championship season, BYU is doing a good imitation of that magical run. A year ago they won only five games. Good luck finding any preseason predictions that placed BYU in the top 10 of the Big 12 or the national top 25.
It’s time to take BYU seriously. The Cougars handed 13th-ranked SMU its only loss of the season. It handed No. 22 Kansas State one of its two losses. Another of their victims, Oklahoma State, has been ranked as high as 13th. The Cougars rank 29th in strength of schedule, according to the highly respected Sagarin ratings, even though five of their wins have come against teams that currently have losing records.
The Cougars suddenly find themselves among the leading candidates for a berth in the newly expanded, 12-team College Football Playoff. The schedule favors them; their final four regular-season games match them with Utah (four wins, four losses), Kansas (2-6), Arizona State (5-2) and Houston (3-5). The two road games — Utah and Arizona State — pose the biggest challenges.
The Cougars have a lot riding on those games.
The USC Trojans fell to the Washington Huskies 26-21 on Saturday. USC fell to 4-5 on the season and missed an opportunity to sneak back into the Big Ten Power Rankings.
The Oregon Ducks showed once again why they are undefeated and ranked as the No. 1 team in the country against Michigan in their 38-17 win. The Ducks controlled the whole game and weren’t phased by the 100,000+ in attendance in “The Big House.”
Next Game: 11/9 vs. Maryland
The Ohio State Buckeyes have the Penn State Nittany Lions number. Ohio State looked in trouble as they went down 10-0 in the first quarter on the road. The Buckeyes defense only allowed three more points the rest of the game in their 20-13 win at Penn State.
Next Game: 11/9 v. Purdue
The Indiana Hoosiers are perfect with a 9-0 on the season and have their sights set on a College Football Playoff berth. Furthermore, Indiana is three wins away from a Big Ten title game appearance.
Next Game: 11/9 v. Michigan
The Penn State Nittany Lions are the kings off winning 9 or 10 games every season, but not getting that big win to put them over the edge. Saturday was a golden opportunity to beat a vulnerable Ohio State team at home. Even with a 10-point lead, they couldn’t do it.
Next Game: 11/9 v. Washington
A month ago, it looked like Minnesota would be lucky to pick up six wins and make a bowl game. Since then, Minnesota has ran off four straight victories. There’s a clear top four in the Big Ten, but Minnesota leads the rest of the conference.
Next Game: 11/9 at Rutgers
Illinois took a step back against Minnesota over the weekend. The Fighting Illlini had losses against Penn State and Oregon coming into the game, but those are both teams ranked in the top ten nationally. Minnesota is not that. They have to drop down a spot.
Next Game: 11/16 vs. Michigan State
The Iowa Hawkeyes look like a completely different team this season. The Iowa offense dismantled Wisconsin in a 42-10 rout over the Badgers.
Next Game: 11/8 at UCLA
The Michigan Wolverines are what they are. The can run the ball effectively, but once they go down two possessions, the game is over. The Wolverines can beat up on the bad teams but have no chance against a really good team. They have 6-6 written all over them.
Next Game: 11/9 at Indiana
Is No. 9 too high for Washington after beating a struggling USC team? They are an even 3-3 in Big Ten play. The rest of the conference have been very underwhelming so the Huskies are at No. 9 for now.
Next Game: 11/9 at Penn State
The fall from grace. The Cornhuskers have lost three straight and are in danger of falling out of the top ten. They still have not clinched a bowl game berth, so keep an eye on that as Nebraska looks to snap their 8-year bowl game drought.
Next Game: 11/16 at USC
Dropped from Rankings: Wisconsin Badgers
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Armenian wildlife rangers did practically everything wrong when recently releasing a brown bear, and they’re lucky nobody got killed, Wyoming Grizzly experts said.
A viral video of the Oct. 23 incident shows a 2-year-old male Armenian brown bear, a close relative of Wyoming grizzlies, turn and charge right for the ranger who lifted the gate on the bear’s cage.
The man barely manages to hop into the bed of a pickup, which speeds away while the irritated bear chases the truck, still dead set on taking a chunk out of the ranger.
Nobody was hurt, but what’s seen in the video is a terrible example of how to handle bears, federal grizzly biologist Frank van Manen told Cowboy State Daily on Monday.
“The scenario shown in the video is highly irresponsible, both from a human safety and bear safety standpoint,” he said.
Retired federal ecologist Chuck Neal of Cody agreed that what the video depicts was foolhardy.
“The man releasing the bear is practically eyeball-to-eyeball with it,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “They’re treating that animal like he was a raccoon or a fox.”
A Bear Named Ricky
Celebrity bears, such as Grizzly 399 and Grizzly 104, aren’t limited to Wyoming’s Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks.
The bear that tried to make mincemeat of the Armenian wildlife ranger is well-known in his home country. He’s named Ricky, after British comedian and animal rights activist Ricky Gervais.
In early October, Ricky was struck by a vehicle in the village of Urtsadzor, Ararat Province, Armenia.
He was taken to a wildlife sanctuary and nursed back to health. His release back into the wild was supposed to be a celebratory moment.
But Ricky apparently didn’t appreciate the humans’ kind gesture.
After his cage was taken to the release site and placed on the ground, the ranger stood atop it and pulled the front gate off.
As Ricky went after him with claws swinging and teeth bared, the ranger had to use the gate as a shield to fend off the bear as the man desperately scrambled into the pickup bed.
Stupid Human Tricks
Having a bear cage just set on the ground was stupid, Neal said. And having somebody stand on top of it and pull the gate was even stupider.
“We don’t even use cages like that anymore in North America,” he said. “The bear-management agencies here typically use culvert-style cages on wheels, pulled behind the truck.”
And the cage door is opened remotely, he added.
“Much of the time, there’s never even a need for personnel to be outside of vehicles during a release,” Neal said.
Gotta Keep ’Em Separated
Keeping people and bears separated during releases is the key to keeping everybody safe, bears and humans alike, said van Manen.
He’s the supervisory biologist for the U.S. Geological Survey’s Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team. The team frequently traps and releases bears, either for studies or to relocated them.
“All partner agencies of the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team have very strict protocols in place to prevent such a dangerous scenario (as the one in the video),” he said.
“The safety of our field personnel and that of the bears in our care is our top priority,” he said. “There are lots of safety considerations and we try to anticipate and minimize risks throughout the entire process of setting and checking traps, chemical immobilization, handling, recovery and release.
“For example, in a similar situation, absolutely no personnel would be outside of a vehicle at the time of release; our field personnel pull the trap door with a very long rope operated from inside a vehicle, and drive away as soon as the trap door opens and the bear leaves the trap.”
Ricky Might Have Been Doped
Neal said that from what he could tell by watching the video, it’s highly likely that Ricky was still recovering from tranquilizers when the ranger pulled the gate on his cage.
“He looked like he was still hopped up on drugs,” Neal said. “He was clumsy and not as agile as bears usually are.”
Although it might seem safter to have a semi-tranquilized bear, that’s not the case, he added.
Bears that are trying to wake up from a tranquilizer nap are known to be extremely grouchy, Neal said.
“Bears can become aggressive when they are coming down off tranquilizers, and I think that might be what was happening in that video,” he said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
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