Given the general popularity of the NBA and the WNBA, perhaps no sport has made clearer the distinction between male and female athletes than basketball. Male NBA players jump higher, run faster, and are simply bigger than their WNBA counterparts.
Anyone who spends 20 minutes watching the two leagues can see that. Anyone who’s played basketball, like high school athlete Amelia Ford, already knows that. In fact, Amelia knew about these key differences the instant she tried practicing against her brother.
“For practice, I shoot hoops with my brother outside, but even with my recent growth spurt, I can’t keep up with him,” Amelia said in 2022. “He’s faster and stronger and can jump higher, move around me quicker, and shoot better than I can. I’m good for a 14-year-old girl, but anyone can see the physical advantage he has over me when it comes to playing sports.”
Yet the Biden administration seemed almost willfully ignorant of that biological reality.
In April 2024, the Biden administration made headlines for officially adopting a set of reckless rule changes that attempted to redefine “sex” in Title IX to include “gender identity.” But the administration’s push to force radical gender ideology on schools across the country started long before that decision.
More than two years before these rule changes became official, Tennessee and 19 other states filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration after it issued guidance documents, previewing the later rule changes that turned Title IX on its head by redefining sex to include gender identity. Alliance Defending Freedom intervened in that lawsuit to protect the privacy, safety, and fairness in sports for women and girls like Amelia.
Who is Amelia Ford?
Amelia is a student at Brookland High School in Jonesboro, Arkansas, where she competes on various girls’ sports teams. Amelia has sacrificed countless hours to train and compete on her basketball team so that she can be the best she can be.
However, under the Biden administration’s Title IX rules, Amelia’s school would be required to allow males who identify as female to compete against Amelia on her teams, as well as access the girls’ locker room, bathroom, and shower areas. Such a policy risked Amelia’s safety, privacy, and right to fair competition.
“I’ve seen how hard boys can hit the volleyball over the net and how much higher they can jump to block shots in basketball. In addition to safety concerns I have when it comes to competing against boys in power sports like basketball and volleyball, it’s not right or fair to force girls to do this,” Amelia explained. “Every girl deserves the opportunity to compete—and the chance to win—on a safe and fair playing field against other girls.”
Just as concerning, the Biden administration’s Title IX rules also threatened Amelia’s free speech. Amelia believes that God created two separate sexes and that boys cannot become girls regardless of what they feel or think. So, Amelia won’t use inaccurate pronouns contradicting someone’s sex and wants to express her belief that sex is immutable and something to be cherished, not rejected.
But the Biden administration’s Title IX rules threatened Amelia with punishment for using these pronouns and for speaking consistently with her views on gender identity.
Amelia—and countless other female athletes—saw the injustice of this and refused to go away quietly, despite the actions of the Biden administration.
How the Biden administration betrayed women like Amelia
On day one of his tenure in office, President Joe Biden instructed federal agencies to rewrite federal law to elevate gender identity over biology. The U.S. Department of Education followed these instructions and issued guidance documents that illegitimately reinterpreted Title IX.
Title IX was passed to eliminate obstacles many women faced in education, especially in higher education. The main provision of Title IX states, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
But the guidance documents redefined “sex” in Title IX, cutting directly against the goal of helping women and girls. The guidance documents told schools to allow males who identify as female to use girls’ locker rooms and restrooms and compete on girls’ sports teams. It also informed schools that students must use inaccurate pronouns for those who identify as a gender different than their biological sex.
The Department of Education said it could launch an investigation into any school that declined to comply with this radical misinterpretation of Title IX.
“The Biden administration’s radical push to redefine sex threatens the equal opportunities that women and girls have enjoyed for 50 years under Title IX,” explained ADF Senior Counsel Matt Bowman, who argued on Amelia’s behalf.
Female athletes like Amelia were obviously and justifiably outraged with this—and took (multiple) steps to remedy it.
Amelia seeks justice
Amelia felt so passionately about this issue that she actually became involved in two separate cases against the Biden administration’s Department of Education.
After seeking out ADF’s guidance, Amelia became a part of both State of Tennessee v. United States Department of Education and State of Arkansas v. U.S. Department of Education. (A number of other states, aside from the named plaintiff, were involved.) Both cases involved the Biden administration’s radical redefinition of “sex.”
The Tennessee lawsuit was filed in August 2021 by 20 states, before ADF intervened on behalf of Amelia and the Association of Christian Schools International in September 2022.
The Arkansas lawsuit was also filed on behalf of Amelia and alongside Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota in May 2024.
“I’m so grateful for those standing against this rule today, and I hope many more will stand up with us,” Amelia said. “Because we matter.”
Amelia gets a crucial “W” against Biden’s Department of Education
Despite the full-throated opposition of the Biden administration, Amelia and ADF made incredible strides fighting back against these injustices.
In the Tennessee case, in July 2022, a federal district court issued an order temporarily blocking the Biden administration’s guidance documents in the 20 states that had filed that lawsuit. And in June 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit upheld that decision.
The 6th Circuit’s ruling only deals with the administration’s Title IX guidance documents; it does not apply to the final rule changes adopted in April 2024. But it works together with the injunctions issued on the Final Rule to keep the government from relying on the guidance documents to enforce its radical rewrite of Title IX in the plaintiff states. ADF is currently litigating multiple cases across the country challenging the new Final Rule too.
Meanwhile, a federal district court in Missouri ruled in July 2024 to immediately halt the Biden-Harris administration’s illegal rewrite of Title IX while the lawsuit State of Arkansas v. U.S. Department of Education moves forward.
A clean sweep on behalf of Amelia and other female competitors
Out of the five lawsuits in which ADF is a part of involving the Biden administration’s mangling of Title IX, the Arkansas decision is the fifth injunction halting the administration’s unlawful efforts.
It’s critical and telling that in all five cases, common sense prevailed.
“We have to fight for justice together,” Amelia said. “It will take all of us standing up for girls. If we fight hard enough, what’s right and true will be recognized in state and federal laws and help female athletes across the country.”
She added: “You can’t ignore common sense forever.”
No, you can’t, especially when the safety and fairness of female competitors are being so flagrantly disregarded. Yet the remnants of the past administration are still causing headaches for countless female athletes today.
With your generous donation, female athletes like Amelia Ford can continue to push forward for safety, privacy, and fairness in women’s sports.
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