For numerous women and girls nationwide, a recent Supreme Court ruling concerning transgender athletes has not brought about significant changes. Twenty-three states still lack statutes preventing biological males from participating in women's sports, with 19 of these states having policies that explicitly permit such inclusion. Washington state is among those where these policies are active.
Hoefer, a high school athlete in Washington, recounted her experiences. During her junior year, her club soccer team encountered a biological male goalkeeper at a tournament in Las Vegas. "I was a forward. Wasn’t a great matchup," Hoefer stated. "Knowing that I didn’t have the physical ability to beat this man was so frustrating."
In her senior year, she competed against a male athlete in the 400-meter race. "The 400 meter race is already such a mental game," she explained. "Knowing that no matter what I trained for and what time I ran, I would always lose was so frustrating, and knowing that this could possibly happen to my little sister is what made me stand up for it."
Beyond competitive disadvantages, Hoefer also raised a more serious concern after a female athlete in her state, Kallie Keeler, was allegedly sexually assaulted by a transgender competitor during a wrestling match earlier this year. "There’s another case that has just recently happened with a girl named Kallie [Keeler]. She’s a wrestler in Washington state. And she was sexually assaulted during a wrestling match," Hoefer noted, referencing the Washington lawsuit. "So I think a big part of what comes next is our state coming to the realization of this is going to keep happening if nothing happens."
Safety and Privacy Concerns Beyond Competition
Kristen Waggoner, CEO, president, and chief counsel of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which is spearheading the Washington lawsuit, underscored that the debate over girls’ sports extends beyond trophies and scholarships. "Kallie’s experience is not just unfortunate, it is devastating to any girl," Waggoner asserted, referring to the Washington wrestler. "To wrestle as a 16-year-old in a sport and believe that you’re wrestling a girl, and then learn that it not only is a boy, but to be sexually assaulted… it’s horrendous, and it’s sexual assault."
Waggoner expressed a desire for the case to be an anomaly. "I wish it was an isolated case, but it’s not," she remarked. "We will work until we win that case for her."
According to Waggoner, the underlying issue is not solely competitive unfairness. It encompasses what girls report experiencing in locker rooms, hotel rooms, bathrooms, and contact sports when sex-based boundaries are disregarded in the name of inclusion. "Women and girls deserve their right to privacy and their right to physical safety," Waggoner emphasized. "You shouldn’t have to even have to talk about sexual assault as a consequence of this because we know that differences matter between the sexes."
This sentiment was echoed by Adaleia Cross, a student-athlete in West Virginia, who spoke out after a transgender athlete, central to a West Virginia case decided by the Supreme Court, competed on girls’ teams. Cross has alleged sexual harassment and claimed her school district failed to protect her. While the transgender athlete and their mother have denied these allegations, and prior reports indicated the school district found them unsubstantiated, Cross and ADF maintain that harm occurred.
"I think it needs to be way more focused on than it is," Cross stated, referring to the risks of sexual harassment and abuse to girls resulting from the inclusion of transgender athletes. "Girls are not safe when they have to share private spaces with men, and people just don't talk about it enough. And I think that if more people were aware going forward, more people would be angry. It’s really hard to think about even now to know how many other kids could they be doing that to? How many other situations of sexual abuse are happening that they’re silencing?"
Hoefer shares this frustration and apprehension as a high school student in a state that permits males in girls' sports. "Us having to be in spaces with male athletes... having to share bathrooms, having to share locker rooms, having to share a hotel room if we're traveling, none of it is fair. And it makes me wonder, when are people going to realize, like, it shouldn't have to come to this point where people are going through sexual assault or sexual harassment. And I want them to focus on that more, I want the media to highlight that more," Hoefer said.
"People always say 'they're lying about it. People don't do that.' But that's not what the reality is... people think it is all just about fairness, it's about safety."
The Legal Battleground and State-Level Conflicts
The country's policies are broadly categorized into three groups. The first includes 27 states with laws safeguarding girls’ and women’s sports based on biological sex. The second comprises 19 states without such laws that actively permit transgender athletes to participate in girls’ sports. The third, a smaller category, involves Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Alaska, and Virginia, where state education agencies or high school athletic associations have implemented sex-based restrictions despite the absence of state statutes.
Illinois has also seen pushback, with its High School Association employing a formal policy for transgender athlete participation. Governor JB Pritzker described the Supreme Court decision as a "setback for equality."
Minnesota and Maine represent significant points of contention. Minnesota’s high school league permits transgender athletes to compete after individual evaluations, while Maine’s Principals’ Association allows students to join teams aligned with their gender identity. Both states, along with California, face lawsuits from President Donald Trump’s Department of Justice over these policies.
Vermont and Washington are particularly central to ADF’s ongoing strategy. Vermont’s Principals’ Association explicitly protects transgender athletes’ ability to participate on teams consistent with their gender identity, and Washington’s WIAA maintains its gender-identity-based participation policy.
Waggoner stated that ADF’s approach involves persistent efforts in these states through both legal action and cultural advocacy. "You can expect that we will uproot gender ideology from the law, and we will not stop until we do," Waggoner declared. "We have several lawsuits that are already ongoing in those 23 states, and we will continue to work to protect women and girls." However, she emphasized that courtrooms alone cannot resolve the issue. "This isn’t just something that it can be won in the courtroom. It has to be won in the culture as well, and the two go hand in hand, so all of us have a role to play," she added.
One such cultural dispute unfolded in Vermont, where Mid Vermont Christian School recently received a $566,000 settlement for damages and legal fees. This followed its exclusion from state sports and academic competitions after the girls’ basketball team forfeited a 2023 game against a team that included a transgender athlete. The Vermont Principals’ Association had banned the school from athletics and other competitions, but the settlement allowed the school to rejoin the state athletic association.
Chris Goodwin, the girls’ basketball coach at Mid Vermont Christian, indicated that the settlement did not resolve the broader issue in Vermont, describing a prevailing "culture and environment of fear." "I know coaches and administrators who, if they wanted to go against this policy before our case was settled, that they told me they would be punished or lose their jobs for it," Goodwin said. "Even though the case was settled, Vermont is still gonna be pretty pervasive with the transgender policies."
Goodwin emphasized the personal nature of the issue, as he has a daughter. "I always think about… my daughter… having to make that choice of you have to play against male athletes or you can’t play at all, and that just seems so unfair to me," he remarked. "It’s not right, and it goes against our religious beliefs. It goes against what our school teaches."
His wife, Bethany Goodwin, echoed this sentiment. "I have a daughter, and so I know how that makes her feel to have to play against a boy," she said. "It’s uncomfortable and it shouldn’t be something that she has to even think about." She added, "Girls obviously shouldn’t be forced to have to compete against boys and have that choice of either compete against boys or don’t compete at all. That shouldn’t be a choice they have to make."
Ryan Tucker, ADF senior counsel and director of its Center for Christian Ministries, framed Vermont’s sports dispute as part of a larger religious-liberty struggle, overseeing ADF litigation involving churches, Christian ministries, and religious schools. He cited other conflicts involving religious schools and public benefit programs, such as dual enrollment, early college, and town tuitioning. "Every time that we either win a case to open the state up or the United States Supreme Court decides an opinion that really should settle the issue, Vermont looks for a workaround," Tucker explained. Following the $566,000 settlement, he hopes "the state will hopefully think twice about taking a similar action since it cost half a million dollars this go-around." "If Vermont continues to discriminate against people of faith, we’re gonna be there to get their back and take the state to court if we need to," Tucker affirmed. "My hope is that at some point Vermont will get the message: the U.S. Constitution is supreme."
Seeking Accountability for Past Harms
The legal fight is now entering a new phase: seeking accountability for previous seasons. The Supreme Court ruling did not award damages to female athletes affected by transgender athlete policies. However, lawsuits filed by Riley Gaines against the NCAA and by Brooke Slusser against San Jose State and the Mountain West Conference are seeking damages for women who claim they lost equal opportunities, privacy, safety, or fair competition under policies that allowed male athletes identifying as female to compete in women’s sports.
Bill Bock, an attorney leading these cases for the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS), stated that the ruling weakens institutions’ argument that Title IX mandated them to allow biological males identifying as female into women’s sports.
Marshi Smith, a former University of Arizona swimmer and co-founder of ICONS, described the ruling as significant but incomplete. "We’re lacking accountability still," Smith commented, pointing to titles, records, roster spots, and scholarships that female athletes believe they unfairly lost.
This concern resonates with Madison Kenyon, a former Idaho State runner who was a voluntary defendant in the Idaho SCOTUS case. Kenyon, who has been a recurring figure in media coverage, said athletic opportunities profoundly shaped her adult life. She maintained her scholarship, earned a nursing degree, works as an emergency room nurse, and credits sports with paving her future. "That scholarship got me my education, my career, and literally has had an impact on the future that I’ve paved for myself," Kenyon explained. "When a male competes in female athletics, women are sidelined with nowhere to go." Kenyon believes girls who lost medals and podium places deserve more than a symbolic victory. "We need to give the rewards to the women who won them," she asserted. "There are so many women who took first place and didn’t get their trophy or their medal, or were on a podium and never got to be on the podium."
Waggoner indicated that the Supreme Court’s reasoning regarding Title IX is now central to ADF’s upcoming lawsuits. She noted that the court addressed whether states can acknowledge biological distinctions in sports, though not whether they are obligated to. "The logic behind the decision does help answer that question because the court recognized these differences are real, they matter," Waggoner said. "For every time a boy takes a girl’s position, it takes away an equal opportunity to a girl." She added, "Title IX, the whole purpose behind it is to provide equal opportunities to women and girls. So we believe it’s a violation of Title IX, and we will continue to litigate until we win that issue."
In 2025, the NCAA revised its transgender athlete policy to restrict women’s competition to student-athletes assigned female at birth. The Supreme Court’s opinion also highlighted that the NCAA, USOPC, and IOC had all established sex-based criteria for female competition.
Public Opinion and The Path Forward
Former Idaho State runner Madison Kenyon believes mainstream media coverage has improved since she began speaking out six years ago, but still often fails to fully convey the cost to girls. She recalled that when she first entered the debate, "nobody was talking about it" and it was considered "taboo." Now, she observes that more Americans understand the issue, but coverage still often overlooks the full impact on female athletes. "The media needs to show that 80% of Americans do not think it is fair for men to compete as females, that it is unsafe to have men in our locker rooms, and I wish the media would really show that part more clearly," Kenyon urged.
A 2025 Gallup survey revealed that 69% of U.S. adults believe transgender athletes should only be permitted to play on teams matching their birth sex, while 24% felt they should be able to play on teams aligning with their gender identity.
Waggoner noted a shift in the media landscape over the past decade. "It was a tough go 10 years ago, to be able to talk about these things," Waggoner reflected. "But I think now as Americans have seen in real time the differences between men and women… the media has also begun to shift a little bit as well." Nevertheless, she acknowledged that interviews on major platforms can still be challenging. "They do ask the tough questions and sometimes some unfair ones," Waggoner admitted. "It has been an absolute delight to see courageous young women athletes stand up for truth."
Waggoner hopes that elite female athletes who have benefited from Title IX will lend their voices to the cause. "There’s no room for cowardice. There’s only room for courage, and it’s never too late to speak out on behalf of women and girls," Waggoner stated. "The equal opportunities that so many of those athletes have benefited from because of Title IX should be available to those who come behind."
Kenyon acknowledged that backlash exists but believes it is less widespread than it appears. "I did receive backlash and messages, but I was flooded with support, and that really kept me going," she shared. "There really is a loud minority out there." She added that the Supreme Court did more than just deliver a legal victory. "I’m grateful that the Supreme Court not only ruled in our favor, but they addressed biological reality throughout their entire decision," Kenyon said.
For Hoefer, the immediate next step is more concrete, extending beyond Title IX, state statutes, federal funding, or athletic associations. It concerns Washington, her younger sister entering high school, and a state where, she believes, girls still have no recourse. "Honestly, I think it just comes down to people like me speaking up," Hoefer concluded. "The more people speak out, parents advocate, people advocate, administrations advocate, then it’ll just kind of be an overtaking of the show of people who do think that this is wrong." She paused, emphasizing her desire for this change to happen sooner rather than later. "My little sister is now a freshman in high school," Hoefer said. "And I cannot even imagine her being in a situation where she has to compete against a boy."
