The Supreme Court hearing on the transgender-athlete issue drew hundreds of high-spirited activists as well as lawmakers to competing rallies Tuesday on the courthouse steps.
Representing the Trump administration was Education Secretary Linda McMahon, who joined Republican lawmakers and dozens of current and former female athletes in support of the Idaho and West Virginia laws barring biological males from girls’ and women’s sports.
“Adults in positions of authority have forced girls to undress with men in their most intimate spaces,” Ms. McMahon told the crowd at the Protect Women’s Sports rally sponsored by the Alliance Defending Freedom.
“They have forced women to risk injury just to participate in athletic competitions that some have spent their whole lives preparing for, and then smeared these women as ‘bigoted’ and ‘transphobic’ for standing up for their own safety and dignity,” she said in her prepared remarks.
“It must end,” she concluded.
Speaking simultaneously at the opposing rally sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union — titled Together We Win: Fight for the ‘T’ in Team — was Rep. Mark Takano, California Democrat, who vowed that Ms. McMahon “will not speak louder or speak over me.”
“Did you hear that, Secretary McMahon? Trans kids have a right to a free and equal education!” he shouted, as shown in a video clip posted on X.
The high court heard oral argument in two cases brought by male-born scholastic athletes challenging state laws requiring students to compete based on biological sex as opposed to gender identity.
Federal appeals courts have temporarily blocked the enforcement of both laws.
The West Virginia lawsuit was filed by Becky Pepper-Jackson, a 15-year-old sophomore who competes in girls’ track and field.
“I play for my school for the same reason other kids on my track team do — to make friends, have fun and challenge myself through practice and teamwork,” said the teen in a statement after the hearing. “All I’ve ever wanted was the same opportunities as my peers. But in 2021, politicians in my state passed a law banning me — the only transgender student-athlete in the entire state — from playing as who I really am.”
Sen. Ed Markey, Massachusetts Democrat, warned that such state laws boil down to whether “MAGA Republicans get to decide who belongs in society and who does not belong in society,” but others disagreed.
Women who have gone toe to toe with female-identifying male athletes said the laws are needed to ensure fairness and safety in their sports, citing examples of cases in which they lost team slots, titles and honors to biological males.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, took a jab at House Democrats for opposing bills to keep male-born athletes out of female sports, emphasizing that House Republicans have lined up staunchly behind advocates of single-sex women’s sports.
“I’m the dad of two girls. My girls were athletes as well. We know what’s fair and what’s right,” Mr. Johnson said at the ADF rally. “I’m proud to stand with you as we fight to protect female-only spaces and sports, and truly the future of women’s athletics.”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, Alabama Republican, said that the “greatest thing that ever happened in that building right over there [the U.S. Capitol] was giving women rights in sports, scholarships, facilities,” referring to the 1972 passage of Title IX, which bans sex discrimination in education.
“Now, this wacko group over here wants to change it all,” Mr. Tuberville told the crowd. “They want to give the rights of women to a gender group that is a fantasy. It’s a fantasy; it’s a dream; it’s a thought.”
Rep. Byron Donalds, Florida Republican, predicted that the Supreme Court would come down in favor of the Idaho and West Virginia laws.
“You have these young female athletes who are working hard at their craft every day, and you have the radical left in America who would tell them they have to compete against men?” asked Mr. Donalds. “That’s crazy, it’s nuts, and the Supreme Court is going to take care of it once and for all.”
Mary McCue Bell contributed to this report.
