Summary
A legal challenge to West Virginia’s women’s sports law, if successful, would undermine women’s sports by allowing males who identify as female to compete with females in girls’ and women’s sports. ADF is working with the State of West Virginia to defend the law, representing former collegiate athlete Lainey Armistead as she intervenes in the case.
Related Articles
Press Releases
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ImageOctober 26th, 2023Female athlete, WV attorney general's office defend state women's sports law at 4th Circuit
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ImageJuly 12th, 2023Girls on WV track team displaced by male athlete
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ImageMay 5th, 2023Athletes, Olympians unite to support women's sports in WV
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ImageApril 6th, 2023Effort to protect women's sports in WV unaffected by US Supreme Court ruling on injunction
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ImageMarch 13th, 2023Female athletes, coaches, feminists, 21 states urge US Supreme Court to protect women’s sports
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ImageMarch 10th, 2023First case over protection of women’s sports reaches US Supreme Court
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ImageJanuary 11th, 2023Female athletes take stand for fairness at NCAA Convention rally
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ImageJanuary 5th, 2023Court upholds WV law protecting women’s sports
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ImageJune 23rd, 2022Biden admin's Title IX rule threatens safety, equal opportunities for women
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ImageJune 22nd, 2022ADF female athlete clients in DC Thursday to speak at Title IX 50th anniversary events
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ImageJune 21st, 2022Press conference Tuesday on protecting women’s sports in West Virginia
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ImageDecember 2nd, 2021Court allows WVSU soccer player to protect women’s sports
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ImageSeptember 10th, 2021WVSU soccer player seeks to protect women’s sports
Case Documents
Frequently Asked Questions
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In 2021, West Virginia passed House Bill 3293, commonly referred to as the “Save Women’s Sports” law. The law ensures female athletes do not have to compete against males in school sports. This protects the opportunity for women and girls in West Virginia to compete, win, and enjoy the benefits of their athletic success.
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Lainey Armistead is a female athlete and a former women’s soccer player at West Virginia State University. While Lainey competed at WVSU, the ACLU and others filed a lawsuit challenging the women’s sports law and asking a federal district court to allow males in women’s sports.
Lainey grew up with multiple brothers who played soccer and a father who coached soccer, so she is very familiar with the fact that the physical differences between male and female athletes give males an advantage. That’s why she intervened in the lawsuit and defend West Virginia’s save women’s sports law.
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No. As professor of exercise science at the University of Nebraska Dr. Gregory Brown has explained, studies conducted by numerous experts have found that there are major physiological differences between men and women that give men a substantial advantage in most sports.
These advantages are clearly demonstrated in the results of male and female athletic events. For example, female track athlete Femke Bol broke the world record for the indoor 400-meter event in February 2023 with a time of 49.26 seconds. Meanwhile, over 1,100 male track athletes ran faster indoor 400-meter times in just the first three months of 2023.
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Dr. Brown’s report outlines many physiological differences between men and women. On average, men have greater muscle mass and strength than women. In addition, the average man has a larger lung capacity, can carry more oxygen in the bloodstream, and can circulate more blood per second than the average woman, leading to higher metabolic rates. These differences translate to athletic advantages including stronger throwing, hitting, and kicking; higher jumping; faster running and swimming speeds; and more for males.
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Athletic organizations that allow male athletes to compete against females are perpetuating the myth that a man can be a woman. Biological reality matters, and our country’s laws and policies must reflect that truth. When we allow lawmakers to redefine basic words like “man” and “woman,” people get hurt – and women and girls bear the brunt of the consequences.
Women are trapped in prisons with dangerous male criminals. Parents are coerced into allowing their children to receive cross sex hormones and sterilizing surgeries that have lifelong irreversible consequences. Women’s shelters are threatened for not allowing males to sleep next to women who have been sexually abused. And colleges are pressured to force women to be assigned to dorm rooms with men. To help ensure women’s safety and dignity in athletics and in society, we must stand up for biological science and objective truth.
Case Profiles
