When Ronald Reagan first proclaimed a National Women in Sports Day in 1987, he never imagined “feminists” would be advocating for males to play against women and girls in sports — including boxing of all things — just a few decades later.
The progress women and girls have made on the playing field is something of which to be proud, but “pro-trans” activists have been working tirelessly to make us believe that it is perfectly ok for males to make a mockery of female athletics and invade our personal spaces.
Soon-departing President Biden has used regulations and executive orders to codify these anti-woman policies into law, thereby turning Title IX on its head by mandating the acceptance of males competing against women and girls.
President Biden’s actions should be a wake-up call to Congress and state legislators across the country to partner with school districts and local governments to pass laws to protect women’s sports and personal privacy.
That’s why Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives Passed the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which, once approved in the Senate and signed into law by President Trump, establishes common sense definitions for sports participation based on biological sex.
It is also why the Wyoming State Legislature passed a bill in 2023 prohibiting transgender participation in girls’ sports in grades 7-12, which it looks to expand to include grades K-7 and higher education in the 2025 Legislative Session.
For a movement that spent nearly a century focused on female empowerment, it is baffling to see so-called feminists hellbent on crushing the next generation of women by spouting such nonsense as “sex isn’t binary,” and “trans women are women.”
Crushing is not an exaggeration. Ask Payton McNabb, a former promising young volleyball player who was concussed and suffered long-term partial paralysis after a boy (claiming to be a girl) on the other team spiked a volleyball at her head, causing her traumatic brain injury.
Despite still recovering from her injuries, Payton bravely speaks out against the dangers of allowing males to play in girls’ sports.
You can also ask the opinions of the dozens of young girls who have been deprived of state championships and scholarships all in the name of protecting “trans rights” rather than protecting women and girls as required by Title IX.
These aren’t isolated issues in states run by leftists on the coasts. Our University of Wyoming women’s volleyball team, and other members of the Mountain West Conference, were forced just this last fall to decide between playing against a man on the San Jose State team (and risk serious injury) or forfeit their games and add a loss to their season.
This mania has thus forced women’s teams to either forfeit their games for the safety of their players, thereby depriving their athletes of competing in the sports they love, or risk serious injury by playing in an unfair and unsafe game.
We have now come to the point that our federal and state lawmakers must define what a biological male and a biological female are for the safety and competitive fairness of our athletes.
The Republicans in Congress are doing just that with the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025. With a majority in the Senate and President Trump in the White House, we have a mandate from the American people to protect women and girls’ sports in Wyoming and across the country.
If this bill is officially signed into law, young women can pursue the sports they love without fear of unnecessary injury in unfair play.
High school athletes can compete in fair competitions, and coaches will not face the daunting decision of forfeiting a game because of safety risks for their players.
This entire debate has exposed how radical advocates for boys in girls’ sports really are. They have taken the unambiguous statement of policy as set forth in Title IX (protecting women and girls in any program that receives federal funds) and created a Frankenstein to manipulate at their will.
In this circumstance that manipulation takes the form of attempting to convince us that, with regard to sports, men can become women and anyone who challenges such a bizarre notion is a bigot.
The American people have rejected that extremism, however, and it is up to our elected leaders, our education officials, and our courts to protect women and girls on the playing field and in their private spaces. Common sense and Title IX demand no less.
Congresswoman Hageman is the lone member of the U.S. House of Representatives for Wyoming, and Megan Degenfelder is Wyoming’s State Superintendent of Public Instruction and the University of Wyoming Women’s Rugby Coach.
