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.” 

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“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. 

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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.”