Help Stop the Supreme Court’s Dangerous Game

The sex and gender debate has never been hotter in the USA.

In the last three months:

• Idaho became the first state to ensure girls’ sports is reserved for biological females – then the ACLU sued the state. When the state chose to defend its necessary and groundbreaking law, the ACLU started lobbying the NCAA to ban its sponsored tournaments from taking place in Idaho.
  
  
• Later, a judge doubled down on her opinion that Idaho citizens should be able to change the sex marker on their birth certificates based on how they feel about their sex—even after Idaho’s duly elected lawmakers clarified that this practice wasn’t good for Idaho.
  
  
• Meanwhile, President Trump’s Department of Education correctly determined that a Connecticut policy letting boys play in girls’ sports is a violation of Title IX, the federal law guaranteeing girls equal access to educational opportunities.
  
  
• Then President Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services ensured that “sex” in Title IX is defined as biological (male/female) sex for the purposes of Obamacare.
  
  
• President Trump’s Housing and Urban Development department also put in place protections so that women’s shelters don’t have to admit men who identify as women.
  
  
• All the while, J.K. Rowling (feminist and author of the popular Harry Potter series) made ripples online – and drew personal attacks – when she dared to suggest that biological sex is real and the transgender movement may be erasing womanhood from society.

Then today, a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court started playing a dangerous game. Sadly, Americans have come to expect judges who step outside their authority to act as lawmakers instead of law-interpreters. What the Court did today was worse—the justices acted as lawmakers, while spilling ink to justify to Americans that they were not.

In today's opinion, the Court claimed that a longstanding federal law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex in the workplace should encompass "transgender and gay identity" inside the meaning of "sex"—even though nearly everyone agrees that Congress never intended that when the law was first passed. Instead of requiring the LGBT lobby to push Congress to change the law, the Court granted them a vigilante-style shortcut.

This startling action caused Justice Samuel Alito to remark, “[a] more brazen abuse of [the Court’s] authority to interpret statutes is hard to recall.” (brackets for clarity)

This is a pivotal cultural moment – one that will decide where we go next, and one we cannot afford to lose.

LGBT activists will celebrate their win today. But, tomorrow the real work of crafting strong policy and clarity within our laws must increase like never before. The Court made clear today that their ruling only applies in the context of for-profit employment situations. That means Family Policy Alliance needs your help like never before to protect the definition of sex in other contexts, such as the law we are defending in Idaho clarifying that girls' sports teams are only for girls. Erasing men and women from our laws would have disastrous consequences that no legal expert today could even begin to imagine. We must craft critical new policies to advance good laws, laws the courts would have a difficult time playing games with.

President Trump’s Administration is hard at work to clarify that “sex” in federal law simply means “male and female,” showing how out of sync the Court is with the reality of the law and policy. But the work can’t end there.

This must be a critical moment of action for us all. As you know, we’ve been hard at work fighting to Save Girls’ Sports in Idaho and other states. Males should not be able to steal opportunities reserved for females – including athletic opportunities. On this issue, “sex discrimination” absolutely plays a role (under a federal law similar to Title VII, Title IX) – and we must fight to ensure the true meaning of “sex” is maintained. If a ruling like today’s were imposed on Title IX, males would be allowed to take opportunities reserved for females – eradicating women’s opportunities across the nation.

We can’t let that happen. At this critical cultural moment, it’s important for leaders to know that the public believes biological sex matters, and that “sex discrimination” should not have multiple meanings. What happened today seems to be at least in part the result of cultural pressure – so it’s important that the public send a strong message for the future that biological sex matters.

If we can win that battle – where there is remarkable consensus, despite the Left’s loud claims – we can begin to win the  “sex” and “gender” battle at large.

That’s one reason we’re launching our #SaveGirlsSports Week next week – and we’re asking you to participate. From June 21-27, we’re asking everyone to post on social media using the hashtag #SaveGirlsSports. We also must send a strong message to our lawmakers now—biological sex matters in athletics, and girls’ sports must be protected! Sign the petition to your lawmakers now!

Please join the #SaveGirlsSports campaign now. The Supreme Court’s dangerous game must stop today.

Onward,

Brittany Jones
Policy Manager

Meridian Baldacci
Policy and Communications Strategist

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