Republican states vow to fight Biden’s crackdown on transgender athlete bans: ‘See you in court’

Republican state leaders have vowed to fight the Biden administration ’s proposed crackdown on transgender athlete bans.

Twenty states have some form of ban on transgender athletes competing in sports against people of the opposite biological sex, laws many leaders have told the Washington Examiner they intend on defending.

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“The proposed rule will destroy women’s sports and take away athletic opportunities for young girls,” Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen (R) said. “This is yet another attack on the rights of women and girls by the Biden administration in their attempt to erase biological facts and push their radical gender ideology agenda on Americans.”

“I will continue to use every tool in my arsenal to fight for equal opportunities for women and girls and uphold Montana’s law against federal overreach,” he continued.

The regulation proposed by the U.S. Department of Education would require schools to allow elementary students to compete in sports based on their stated gender identity. High school and college students may be subject to certain sex-specific regulations.

Montana is not alone in its opposition. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) tweeted , “South Dakota will not allow this to stand,” and told the Biden administration, “We’ll see you in court.”

“This is not the first time the Biden administration has attempted to redefine Title IX to force schools to allow biological males to compete on girls’ sports teams,” Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron (R) said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “Last July, our office and a coalition of other attorneys general halted a similar Department of Education effort related to Title IX, and later this month, we’ll continue this fight by arguing our case before the Sixth Circuit.”

Cameron joined 18 other attorneys general last year challenging the Department of Education and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission guidance on transgender athletes, for which the federal district court granted an injunction.

Both Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) and Attorney General Tim Griffin (R) said they would fight the proposed rule as well.

“President Biden’s Title IX proposal admits what we all know: Girls ought to be able to compete on an equal playing field, and they can’t do that when forced to compete against boys,” Griffin said. “Recognizing that, Arkansas bans boys from competing against girls. I will be filing comments with the Department of Education opposing this attempt, and if this proposal is adopted, I will sue to block it.”

Sanders’s communications director Alexa Henning said, “The governor promised to protect kids, including keeping biological men from participating in women’s sports; this new rule by the Biden administration undermines that very promise. Arkansas won’t be following the proposed rule that flies in the face of basic biology and undermines women’s athletics.”

Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador told the Washington Examiner the “rule is unfair, unscientific, and will further erode the legal protections that pioneering women athletes fought so hard to obtain.”

Labrador said the Biden administration is “creating two-tier systems” by developing different sets of rules for younger and older athletes.

Other officials published press releases or posted on Twitter their opposition to the rule.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) tweeted, “President Biden has decided that he wants to force our daughters to play sports with biological males.”

“Mississippi won’t allow it,” he continued. “We’re going to stand strong for all of our daughters, and stand up to the radical left’s pseudoscience.”

In a press release, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) said , “This new rule, proposed by the Biden administration, creates a loophole for biological men to unfairly compete in women’s sports. It’s a slap in the face to female athletes across the country, both past and present.”

“Outrageous. The Biden administration continues to deny reality, but that doesn’t change the fact that men are biologically different than women,” Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt tweeted. “In Oklahoma, we stand with female athletes and we will protect women’s sports.”

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita (R) also voiced opposition, saying, “This transgender extremism is wrong and unconstitutional.”

“Basic fairness in sports has always been a principle that we all follow, whether it be age or other criteria,” South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson (R) told the Washington Examiner. “We should follow it here as well.”

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Several states have legal challenges to their transgender sports bans, and the U.S. Supreme Court recently allowed a male child who identifies as a female to continue competing in girls’ sports.

The Biden administration’s proposed rule, which now enters a 30-day public comment period, comes as a growing number of states are not only banning students from competing in sports against the opposite sex, but also are restricting the practice of the “gender-affirming care” model, which allows certain children to receive hormone treatments and sex reassignment surgeries.