Girls Are Still Being Forced To Play Sports Against Boys

When boys play in girls’ sports, according to Jones, it “rips girls’ friendships apart” as many just “want to get along.” She found this affects far more than those in elite sports — it reaches girls across the country, even in middle school athletics. Jones said one of her youngest cases involved an 11-year-old girl who wanted to quit soccer after being forced to play against biological boys.

“We all saw him hitting the balls out of the park and taking the best and most important positions like pitcher, because he’s a boy,” the player told The Federalist. “He has taken titles and awards and opportunities from girls who should have had those honors.”

The Federalist reviewed the particular details of this case, but declined to publish them due to the ages of the players involved. The female player said the matter has caused her and others “many nights of no sleep and tears.”

“I wish all of this would just stop. I can’t believe it’s real. No one can prepare a girl to watch their spot fade away from them just because a boy has the ability to take it,” the player said. “I hate feeling silenced and scared. … It should never have come to this.”

She said girls feel “cheated and silenced” when this issue is ignored.

“It’s definitely a huge mental toll on the girls to feel cheated and silenced, and it’s obviously uncomfortable when the situation is talked about,” she said. “But most importantly, it’s frustrating that nobody who is in charge will speak up and fix it in fear of backlash.”

Skirting the Law

The Oregon state government and school athletic association have been unfairly pitting boys against girls, violating Trump’s executive order on “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.” In response, according to Oregon Public Broadcasting, the Department of Education announced an investigation last month into Portland Public Schools and the Oregon School Athletics Association for “trampl[ing] on the antidiscrimination protections that women and girls are guaranteed under law.”

Minnesota is similarly colluding to violate anti-discrimination law. In February, state Attorney General Keith Ellison supported the Minnesota State High School League’s decision to continue allowing boys in girls’ sports. This prompted the Department of Justice to launch an investigation into the league for “denying girls an equal opportunity to participate in sports and athletic events by requiring them to compete against boys.” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote that requiring girls to compete against boys violates Title IX, adding that the DOJ “stands ready to take all appropriate action to enforce federal law.”

Even in deep-red states like Texas, where state legislatures already passed protections for women’s sports, leftist school districts have been caught planning to break the law. Multiple Dallas-area districts — Dallas, Irving, and Richardson — were allegedly caught saying, “if you change your birth certificate before moving to the state or before moving to the district, your biological boy can play in girl[s’] sports,” according to The Dallas Express. In February, state Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an investigation into the matter, and last month he sought depositions.

Protecting Women’s Sports for Good

Beth Parlato, senior legal advisor for the Independent Women’s Forum, told The Federalist her group’s action branch has introduced model legislation across America to protect women’s sports. According to Independent Women’s Voice, so far 26 states have passed bills protecting women’s sports, 15 of which also passed bills defining the term “sex.” 

In the states that have not passed this legislation, “if the legislation gets introduced, it doesn’t really get anywhere,” Parlato said. For example, a Minnesota bill to protect women’s sports failed in February.

So IWF hopes Congress will protect women’s sports, according to Parlato. The U.S. House passed legislation in January, but the Senate has not yet passed the bill.

“Over the next three years, we would love to see it pass in the Senate. Then it becomes codified into law,” Parlato said. “That, of course, we need just in the event that a different administration comes into power. … If they want to vacate President Trump’s executive order, they could do that on day one. So we need to be able to get federal law passed.”

For the time being, however, there are a few means of recourse. If states or districts violate the law, Parlato said, victims can file a discrimination complaint with the Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights. She also said the federal government can pull funding from entities that violate the law.

“The federal government is not screwing around,” Parlato said. “So if any school, K-12 or university, is not complying with the executive order to keep men out of women’s sports, they will lose federal funding.”

Many states with protections have based the determination of biological sex on “birth certificates … recorded at or near the time of birth,” Parlato said. She said IWF supports this approach, “because how else can you determine?”

“The left may try to find these loopholes, but they’re not going to be able to get away with it, because the birth certificate has got to be the original birth certificate,” Parlato said. “You have to present to the school or the athletic association a birth certificate that was recorded at or near the time of birth. They’re not going to accept amended if you did a gender marker, and you try to change your gender.”

But Jones said the law must go beyond birth certificates to be effective, as legal documents are susceptible to changes and human error.

“I don’t want to undermine how important it is for us to have documentation be legally accurate in order to uphold our laws, but it can’t be the reason why you grant status,” Jones said. “There’s two really important pieces here. One is recognizing that women are protected on the basis of sex. And then step two, which has to happen for any law, is ‘What are the mechanisms of enforcement?’”

One way of ensuring a player’s sex is for doctors to record it while conducting pre-participation physicals, according to Jones.

“A doctor is going to be able to very easily discern an individual’s sex in the edge cases where there is any kind of ambiguity, but you don’t need to pull someone’s pants down to do this,” she said. 

If doctors run across an uncertain case, Jones said, they can cross-reference with birth records or perform additional screenings like a cheek swab to detect male genes. The international sports body World Athletics recently adopted the use of cheek swabs to “doggedly” protect female participants.

Boys competing in girls’ sports violates their privacy — for example, in locker rooms and on overnight trips, places them at an unfair disadvantage, and tells them they are worth less.

“It’s not fair for people to be blind, especially not for girls,” she said. “We can tell, and we’re going to go confirm and make sure that girls aren’t facing an unfair or unsafe situation.”

Logan Washburn is a staff writer covering election integrity. He is a spring 2025 fellow of The College Fix. He graduated from Hillsdale College, served as Christopher Rufo’s editorial assistant, and has bylines in The Wall Street Journal, The Tennessean, and The Daily Caller. Logan is from Central Oregon but now lives in rural Michigan.