The US Supreme Court recently ruled that states can restrict girls' and women's sports to "biological females," effectively excluding transgender athletes.
The decision upholds bans in 27 states, including West Virginia and Idaho, under Title IX and the 14th Amendment.
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It also aligns with President Donald Trump's executive order titled "Keeping Men out of Women's Sports," which ties federal funding to compliance.
However, critics argue that these measures have little to do with privacy, safety, fairness, or dignity. Instead, they deprive transgender athletes of those very protections.
The science cited to justify the bans, they say, is flawed.
Science vs. Ideology
Decades of research show that sex, gender, and desire are complex and not strictly binary.
Some people are born with intersex traits or mosaic chromosomes, and hormone levels vary widely. Transgender individuals themselves demonstrate that sex is not immutable.
Yet the ruling and executive order rely on a simplistic, binary view of sex.
Justice Clarence Thomas, in his concurrence, wrote that sex is an immutable biological characteristic and that transgender people are not the sex they identify as, even if they believe they are.
Critics say this language denies the reality of transgender existence and treats trans people as less than equal citizens.
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The Trump administration has also moved to discharge transgender service members and upheld bans on gender-affirming care for minors.
