Athletes must give countless hours to train, compete, and excel in their sport.
The goal is to win. Setbacks are expected, inevitable, and even can be catalysts for an athlete’s personal growth in their sport.
But not all setbacks are created equal—like when a female athlete is forced to compete against a bigger, stronger, and faster male athlete. That kind of setback is nearly impossible to overcome.
And that’s the sort of unfair competition Lainey Armistead began to hear about while playing on West Virginia State University’s women’s soccer team.
Now, Lainey is standing with the state of West Virginia at the U.S. Supreme Court in support of its law that will protect women’s sports.
Who is Lainey Armistead?
Lainey comes from a family of athletes. She was kicking soccer balls almost as soon as she could walk.
Between getting coached by her dad (an All-American college soccer athlete), attending soccer matches with her family, and playing pick-up games with her brothers, Lainey couldn’t help but develop a passion for the “beautiful sport.”
As she describes it, soccer “was like the air I breathed.”
Lainey started competing at age seven. When she was just nine years old, her club team won the U.S. Youth Futsal National Championship, the most prestigious indoor youth soccer competition in the country.
She and her club team won the state championship during both her freshman and sophomore years of high school, as well.
But to play this much and this well, Lainey had to miss out on other opportunities. She had to skip events like school dances, birthday parties, and family gatherings, and she trained hard in her free time on both weekends and weekdays.
But it was worth it. “It’s exhilarating to see all the training and hard work that we put in at practice pay off on the field,” she says.
And thanks to that hard work, Lainey was able to earn a soccer scholarship at West Virginia State University. The scholarship helped to pay for her education. She also was privileged to serve as team captain for her college team, the Yellow Jackets.
A bit of common sense
In 2021, West Virginia joined many other states in passing legislation that keeps males from competing in women’s sports. ADF helped draft the law, and West Virginia State Senator Patricia Rucker sponsored the bill in the state legislature. Today, the majority of states have laws on the books protecting women’s sports.
West Virginia’s commonsense law, often called the “Save Women’s Sports” law, helps ensure equal opportunities for women and girls in sports and protects their safety by making sure they are not forced to compete against males. But the American Civil Liberties Union challenged that law in federal court.
Lainey had heard about female track athletes in Connecticut who were being displaced in their sports by biological males. “I was appalled and heartbroken for those girls. It felt so unfair,” Lainey said. She also recognized, at the time, that she could be directly affected by the ACLU’s challenge to West Virginia’s law.
With the help of Alliance Defending Freedom, she intervened in the case to defend not only her own interests, but also to stand for the fairness and safety of female athletes across the state of West Virginia.
Ignoring biological reality hurts real people
After Lainey intervened in the lawsuit, a federal district court ruled that West Virginia could enforce its law. But the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit reversed part of that decision and stripped West Virginia of its ability to protect fairness in women’s sports.
As a result of the 4th Circuit’s ruling, the male student-athlete in the case then displaced over 300 female athletes in track and field events, which prevented some girls from competing in conference championship meets.
The fact is that a male athlete’s perception of his “gender identity” doesn’t erase his clear, undisputable physical advantages over female athletes. Girls need and deserve to compete on a level playing field.
As Lainey well knows, soccer is a rough contact sport: concussions, knee injuries, and ankle injuries are common among female players. Add into the mix a male who races down the field at a faster pace, kicks the ball harder, and knocks into other players with a larger physical frame, and the risk of injury to girls and women increases dramatically.
Allowing males to compete in girls’ sports destroys fair competition, safety on the field, and women’s athletic opportunities. When biological differences between men and women are ignored, people get hurt.
Women’s sports at the Supreme Court
After the loss at the 4th Circuit, the state of West Virginia and ADF attorneys representing Lainey appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. In July 2025, it agreed to hear the case.
At the same time, the Court also agreed to hear Little v Hecox. In this case, the ACLU challenged Idaho’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act. Similar to West Virginia’s law, Idaho’s law ensures that only females can compete in sports designated for girls and women.
Track athletes Madison Kenyon and Mary Kate Marshall both intervened in Idaho’s case. They know how it feels to compete against and lose to male athletes in their sports, and they want to see fairness restored.
The Supreme Court now has the opportunity to affirm that states like West Virginia and Idaho are free to enforce commonsense laws that ensure safety and fairness for female athletes.
Oral arguments will take place next term for both cases.
Support Cases like Lainey’s
In her declaration, Lainey acknowledged that “[g]etting involved in this lawsuit was a weighty decision. I sought a lot of counsel … before deciding to become involved…”
And rightly so. Cases like hers can take years to come to a decision, come with public scrutiny, and could cost tens of thousands of dollars.
But thanks to the generous support of people like you, Lainey can stand with confidence, and without financial burden, for the truth that men and women are different.
Your gift today will help support Lainey and other ADF clients who are standing up for the truth. Will you give today and stand with them?
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