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It isn’t just a government responsibility. Female athletes, their families, churches, and local communities all have steps they can take right now to help protect and reclaim women’s sports.
After President Donald Trump was inaugurated, he signed, while surrounded by women and girl athletes, an executive order to ensure that states follow Title IX’s mandate for equal, sex-segregated athletic opportunities and locker rooms for females.
His administration swiftly followed on his promises to protect women’s sports by launching investigations and withholding funding from states, including Maine, and institutions like the University of Pennsylvania, which had openly violated federal law by allowing males to invade women’s locker rooms and dominate female athletic competitions.
Despite the efforts of the Trump administration, boys and men are still dominating women’s sports, arguably at an increasing rate.
In blue states around the nation, state governments, school districts and athletic governing associations are openly defying federal law and the new executive order. Just in the last month, males have claimed championship titles in California, Washington, Oregon, Maine, and Minnesota.
LGBTQ proponents like to claim that, percentage wise, there are very few transgenders competing in women’s sports; what they can’t deny, however, is that whenever and wherever males compete against women and girls, the males dominate the competition. The most publicized example came on May 31. At the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) track and field finals, male athlete AB Hernandez competed in the girls’ category and won first in the high jump and triple jump and finished second in the long jump.
President Trump condemned Hernandez’s inclusion in the meet, but California’s response wasn’t to protect the integrity of women’s sports; instead, it passed new rules that increased the number of girls who could place and ensured that girls who lost to Hernandez wouldn’t be pushed down in those placings.
For example, when Hernandez received first place in the triple jump, the next closest competitor, Kira Grant Hatcher, was also awarded “first” place and allowed to share the podium with him.
In Minnesota, a male, going by the name of Marissa Rothenberger, dominated the Class 4A high school playoffs. Rothenberger pitched all three games for his team in the state finals, throwing 21 straight shutout innings. Ultimately, he led his team to win in the state championship game, allowing just three hits.
In Washington State, a male, who uses the name Veronica Garcia, won his second consecutive state title in the 400 meters, easily crushing his female competition.
This entire article could be filled with recent examples of males winning in women’s sports, but the reality of what is happening is pretty clear: If male athletes enter a competition, they are almost always winning.
The bigger question is: What can be done about this problem? And more importantly, who has the responsibility to stand up for women against this state-sanctioned cheating and theft?
While pro-women activists, journalists, and even President Trump very publicly criticized these male athletes, we must also acknowledge that in some cases, these individuals — who are teenagers — are victims themselves.
In Rothenberger’s case, reports claim that his mother applied to have his birth certificate altered to list him as female when he was only nine years old.
In Minnesota, a parent is allowed to change their child’s birth certificate without any notation indicating the change, a loophole that would allow a male athlete to skate around the NCAA’s new policies. This raises an important concern regarding the NCAA’s new eligibility policy that prohibits males from competing against females. If the determination is made by birth certificate, males from states like Minnesota can automatically become eligible with a quick visit to the local Vital Records website.
When a child’s birth certificate is changed when he is nine, he is a victim. The blame belongs to those who introduced him to gender ideology and enabled it, not the child himself.
No, I place the blame at the feet of politicians like those in Minnesota who would enact such a policy and who voted against commonsense legislation designed to protect women’s sports.
I place blame at the feet of athletic governing bodies like CIF, who — instead of defending fairness — offered girls a compromise that only further humiliates female athletes. Letting girls share a podium with biological males and pretending that it’s a victory is condescending and, yes, patronizing.
I place blame at the feet of the modern education system that, rather than teaching children to read, write, and reason, indoctrinates them with gender ideology, telling girls that they must be “allies” of boys invading their spaces.
I place the blame on so-called journalists like those in the California newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle who wrote nothing short of propaganda championing Hernandez and portraying critics as heartless, hateful, and juvenile bigots. It is heartbreaking to read The Chronicle’s article and the quotes of young girls who have been so steeped in LGBTQ ideology that they praised Hernandez and called him a “superstar” or insisted that “She’s representing who she is.”
I place the blame on the therapists and doctors who answer the concerns of parents of gender-confused children by posing this manipulative (and false) premise: “Would you rather have a dead son or a live daughter?” That seems to be the case with Hernandez’s mother, who in an interview said, “I’m not losing my child because of my stubbornness and for me being close-minded. Like I’d rather embrace our times together even when it’s been this difficult than going to a cemetery and crying because I couldn’t accept something.”
Finally, I place the blame at the feet of parents — those who either succumb to this emotional blackmail or those who simply want to change their child’s gender for their own selfish or sick purposes.
It’s important to keep this in mind when discussing minors competing in girls’ sports.
So, what should we do about male participation in women’s sports? There are several things already happening.
First is what the Trump administration is currently doing: Using the legal system and withholding funding from those who violate federal law. Following the California state final, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dillion, head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, issued a letter to California’s school districts informing them of their legal obligation to not allow males to compete in female sports. If California schools don’t comply, federal funding will be at risk.
Female athletes and their families also should utilize their legal options. Several lawsuits have already been filed. These include the high-profile case brought by Riley Gaines and other collegiate athletes against the NCAA; a lawsuit filed by female athletes against San Diego State University for allowing male athlete Blaire Fleming to compete in women’s volleyball; and recently, a suit challenging Minnesota policy brought on behalf of three Minnesota high school softball players who have been forced to compete against a male pitcher, likely Rothenberger.
If you are a female athlete or the parent of one, you have a legal and constitutional right to equal opportunity. Under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, schools are required to have equal, sex-segregated facilities and athletic opportunities for females and males.
Unfortunately, legal rights don’t always translate to legal victories. Many judges have demonstrated in recent years that the legal system is not without its own issues and biases.
The next thing that can be done is to engage in various types of protest. While I would encourage parents and other spectators to use their First Amendment rights and let their voices be heard, this can be difficult on this issue as many offending school districts and athletic associations are quick to boot even silent protesters from sporting events, sometimes with a police escort.
That was the case for Sophia Lorey, director of outreach for California Family Council, during the California state finals. Lorey, who is one of the preeminent voices for protecting women’s sports, particularly in California, was removed from the meet due to an unstated rule that she could not hand out bracelets and small flyers. Even after offering to throw the flyers away, she was told she still had to leave.
However, while spectators are easily dispensed with, competitors have more of a platform and more leeway to protest, whether through boycotts, silent protest, or speaking out.
Several girls have courageously protested males in their sports over the last few weeks, including Alexa Anderson and Reese Eckard, who stepped off the podium in protest after the Oregon state track and field finals. A meet official ordered them to get out of the picture if they weren’t going to participate.
While the official could try to silence their actions and punish them, the message has been sent.
“This is the first public stand that I have taken in this issue, but I have privately supported all the girls that have done with positive messages, commenting on posts, just supporting them and letting them know I’m behind them in any way,” said Anderson.
Anderson represents many female athletes who quietly oppose male inclusion in women’s sports but thus far have made no public statement. Many female athletes are afraid to say anything because they don’t want to be punished.
Yet now, more and more are beginning to make their voices heard.
Another female competitor in Oregon displayed her shirt that read “XX” before competing in the high jump state championship.
In Washington, Tumwater High School girls organized a protest of Garcia winning the state title, holding signs that read “XX” and “THIS IS NOT A WALKOUT—WE ARE NOT GOING ANYWHERE”.
Women and girls may also opt to do what many volleyball players did in response to Fleming’s inclusion in women’s sports: refuse to compete. If all women and girls boycotted every competition with a male athlete, it would reveal the reality of the push to let transgenders in female sports: It’s a farce.
Another step that must be taken is mandatory testing. Contrary to the absurd claims of transgender advocates that sex testing would require athletes to be subjected to a genitals check, it’s not invasive at all. As World Athletics recently implemented, the test is simply a one-time cheek swab performed by a healthcare professional. The result — either XX or XY chromosomes — is then permanently included in the athlete’s record.
And finally, if blue states and athletic associations refuse to prohibit males from competing in girls’ sports, then an alternative to school sports should be created. While club teams exist, many of those are also subject to — or subject themselves to — the same inane politics that allow athletes to compete according to their chosen gender.
For this reason, churches and other community leaders should step in and create athletic opportunities that restrict participation to biological sex.
Blue states have made it clear they will prioritize the LGBT lobby over protecting women. This is why women and girls, their families, and churches and local communities must raise their voices with clarity and conviction so that they cannot be ignored.
The vast majority of Americans oppose male inclusion in women’s sports. It’s time we acted like it.
PHOTO: High school girls in Tumwater, Washington, protest after a boy who goes by the name Veronica Garcia won the state title in the 400m distance at the state championships in late May 2025. CREDIT: Instagram
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