Gold medals, privacy, and natural order

With the 2024 Paris Games behind us, and the eyes of the international sporting community turned toward Los Angeles in 2028, it’s worth taking time to appreciate the medal haul of our U.S. athletes. Of the 126 total medals won by the United States, 67 of those belong to American women—including 26 of the 40 gold medals.

That is a huge testament to the effectiveness of Title IX, a law that helped secure equal athletic opportunities for women. By giving women the chance to compete on a level playing field, the United States has produced some of the most dominant female athletes the world has ever seen, including swimmer Katie Ledecky, gymnast Simone Biles, and hurdler Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.

But if the Biden-Harris administration has its way, the United States is in danger of never seeing athletes like them again.

In April, the Department of Education announced a rule change to Title IX that includes “gender identity” in the federal definition of “sex.” Despite calls for the White House to abandon this unlawful move, it doubled down—and women and girls will suffer for it.

We’ve already seen real-world examples of how this plays out. In West Virginia, state legislators passed a law to protect women’s sports for women. But the American Civil Liberties Union (with support from the Biden-Harris administration) sued to strike down that law, and so far, the court system has ruled against West Virginia and paused enforcement while the lawsuit proceeds. West Virginia—along with Alliance Defending Freedom—is appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court to restore the law.

Because West Virginia can’t enforce its law, a male involved in the lawsuit has already displaced nearly 300 girls more than 700 times. In one instance, five middle school girls refused to compete against him in the shot put—and they were punished as a result. Another teen girl lost several competitions and spots on the field to this male—all while enduring his degrading and abusive language. ADF now represents her in a lawsuit against the Biden-Harris administration’s Title IX rule change.

And this rule change doesn’t just threaten female athletes; it puts girls in schools throughout the United States in unnecessary danger. In another case ADF attorneys have filed, one student described how she walked into her school’s girls restroom and found a male in there. The incident was so upsetting to her that she eventually started to avoid the restroom altogether—which sometimes meant waiting nine hours a day. Eventually, her home state of Oklahoma passed a law that kept private spaces separated by sex, giving her and other girls who were avoiding the restrooms peace of mind. The Title IX rule change would undo all of that.

With nearly a dozen lawsuits tackling this one rule change, courts across the country have seen through the ideological ruse of gender ideology and have stopped enforcement of the rule change as the lawsuits continue. At this writing, 26 states and more than 3,800 schools across the country are protected from these rule changes for now. But there’s still a long way to go to keep the federal redefinition of “sex” from upending our education system.

Most Christians watching these situations unfold are understandably upset—and we should be. Watching the clear distinctions between men and women treated as a subjective state of mind rather than a biologically established fact is an insult to nature and nature’s God. Standing up for vulnerable women and girls is one of many ways we can stand up for “the least of these.” So, too, is refusing to lie to children affected by gender dysphoria. We cannot take a “live and let live” approach when dangerous lies are wreaking havoc on fellow image-bearers.

Indeed, taking a stand for biological truth in God’s created order not only allows us to be a voice for women and girls who have their privacy and athletic opportunities threatened but also to bring hope to children who are being forced to accept their confusion. When we follow our Creator’s design, we’re all allowed to flourish.