URGENT: Idaho CANNOT Be the Only State to #SaveGirlsSports!

Save Girls’ Sports Week has been a success so far, thanks to your help spreading the word to kick off the campaign. Now it’s time to take action. Please sign this petition to lawmakers asking them to #SaveGirlsSports in their own states.

With your help, we hope that more state legislators will be empowered to sponsor bills that #SaveGirlsSports, just like Representative Barbara Ehardt did in Idaho.

Rep. Ehardt was a Division I NCAA basketball competitor and coach. In both roles, she saw how strong and talented women could be – and she developed a great appreciation for the gift of separate men’s and women’s sports divisions.

She knew that letting males compete in female sports wouldn’t be fair. And she knew that it was time to put that on the record in her home state of Idaho.

As a state legislator, Rep. Ehardt has been a champion for Idaho’s female athletes, where she sponsored the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act. Family Policy Alliance of Idaho was the leading organization on the ground shepherding the bill all the way to veto-proof supermajorities in both chambers and the Governor’s signature. Your outreach to elected officials played a significant role in making that happen: thank you.

The Fairness in Women’s Sports Act is a simple law that ensures girls’ sports are reserved for girls. No boys allowed. It’s a recognition that men have certain athletic advantages over women, and that even when men identify as women and try to “transition,” those advantages (gained in puberty) aren’t eradicated.

Without a law like Fairness in Women’s Sports, males could have the opportunity to win female-only competitions – and the scholarships and other elite advancement opportunities that come with them.

Sadly, Idaho is the only state with a law like Fairness in Women’s Sports today – and its law is under attack. The ACLU has sued the state and seeks to enjoin the law. They’re also pressuring the NCAA to ban NCAA-sponsored events in the state as “punishment” for this good law. And, this week California banned state-paid travel to Idaho as its own form of punishment.

It shouldn’t be that way. Girls in every state should have the opportunity to compete on a level playing field, and no state should be attacked simply for protecting girls’ sports.

That’s why Family Policy Alliance is on a mission to #SaveGirlsSports. Many of you have helped spread the word over the last few days – thank you.

Now it’s time to take action. If you haven’t already, please sign this petition to state lawmakers supporting laws like Fairness in Women’s Sports. Your voice is critical to help pass laws that Save Girls’ Sports in other states in the future. Every voice matters. When you’ve signed, you may consider sharing with your friends who care about saving girls’ sports.

Our daughters may depend on it.


Meridian Baldacci
Policy and Communications Strategist