A “common sense” law in Indiana requiring girls sports teams to be made up of only biological girls has been successfully challenged, but the state’s attorney general is fighting back. 

After the mother of a biological boy wanting to play on a girls softball team won an injunction against the state’s new law that would effectively prevent the boy from doing so, last week Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita filed an appeal. 

“Forcing female student-athletes to compete against males in women’s sports is an absolute assault on girls’ equality of opportunity and even their physical safety,” Attorney General Rokita said in a statement. “Males possess certain physiological advantages that make them faster and stronger, and it’s unconscionable to ignore these scientific realities. The Left must stop sacrificing women’s well-being on the altar of transgender woke-ism.” 

In the brief, Rokita argues:

Self-identifying as a girl . . . does not negate the advantages that come from being born male,” the brief states. “That means transgender athletes born male will outperform athletes born female who have equivalent levels of dedication, training, and skill, displacing those female athletes from rosters and podiums. It would turn Title IX on its head to construe the statute to privilege gender identity, an unprotected characteristic, at the expense of sex, the protected characteristic. 

The mother was represented by the American Civil Liberties Union in the case, and challenged the law under Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause. 

“Forcing girls to compete against biological males for spots on women’s sports teams robs them of opportunities to participate in athletics,” Rokita said in a previous release. “Not only that, but forcing girls to play against biological males endangers their very health and safety. We must follow the science and Hoosier common sense.”