For every generation, some things take place that will make members of that generation say something like, "If you had told me (pick a number) of years ago that that would happen, I would have told you you were crazy." For many of us today, that statement covers a whole lot of things. Sometimes, those things we never thought would happen lead to positive change. At other times, they lead to consequences that have lasting effects. As someone who has never been an athlete in her life, I have always been a bit envious of the girls around me who were. They make it look so easy. But now, as if we didn't already know it, those talented girls and women are in the fight of their lives.
🚨 BREAKING: A group of Minnesota girls’ softball players are suing Attorney General Keith Ellison and the state high school league over the transgender athlete policy.
— Dustin Grage (@GrageDustin) May 20, 2025
Bravo to these brave athletes! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 pic.twitter.com/P2WMBfOA2A
The fight to keep women's sports exclusively for women has kind of snuck up on us a bit. Those of us of a certain age remember Renée Richards. Richards was one of the first transgender athletes. She sued the United States Tennis Association in 1976 when they began requiring genetic screening for female players. It was the catalyst for her going pro. She refused to take the test and was not allowed to play. Her case went up to the New York State Supreme Court. The court ruled in favor of Richards, saying that requiring her to take the test was "grossly unfair, discriminatory and inequitable, and a violation of her rights."
READ MORE: Taking a Stand: Two Female Oregon Athletes Make Powerful Gesture at State Track Championship
Since then, as with all things the left does, it began incrementally. Fast forward to 2022, when University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines was forced to compete against Lia Thomas, a biological male. She and her teammates were also forced to share a locker room with Thomas, a fully intact male, without any warning or consent. She has since become an outspoken advocate for women's sports and spaces being specifically for biological women.
Perhaps men in women's sports was something the left just assumed they could slip past everyone. But since Riley Gaines spoke up, the genie is out of the bottle, and girls are beginning to fight back. In March, Reese Hogan, a track and field athlete in California, took her rightful place on the podium after a male beat her and was awarded a medal. In April, U.S. fencer Stephanie Turner took a knee and refused to compete with a biological male, and most recently, in Oregon, two female track athletes refused to share the podium with transgender competitors.
🚨 A male pitcher is dominating Minnesota high school softball—throwing 14 shutout innings & sparking national outrage.
— Independent Women's Forum (@IWF) June 3, 2025
Now, 3 female athletes are suing the state for allowing a male to compete in girls’ sports. Read the story: https://t.co/gHqomZW2ww
So, what happens from here? Well, a few thoughts. Chances are, you won't find many conservatives, including myself, cheerleading for the women's movements of the '60s and '70s. While their agenda was largely leftist, they did do a few things that women of today enjoy. They fought for women to get equal pay to men for doing the same job. They fought for the rights of equally qualified women not to be passed over for jobs by men. And they fought for and achieved in getting Title IX passed.
They marched in the streets, but they also got organized. Don't get me wrong -- girls standing up for women's sports anywhere, anytime is a good thing. But as the women's movement discovered, not only is there safety in numbers, but the more of you there are, the louder you are. Granted, there are plenty of women's organizations, another good thing, but a national organization with a laser focus specifically on this issue might be the answer. With organization comes the ability to put more than one or two women in a certain place. Whether it looks like it, or whether we want to believe it, the transgender movement is organized. It's a war, and you have to have the generals in place so they can strategically place the soldiers.
How is that kind of organization going to come about? I'm not sure. The parents of student athletes definitely play an important part. They don't want to see their daughters treated unfairly, and they are the ones who vote. But ultimately, it's the women, those who are athletes right now, who are going to have to take their own sports back. They are the movement that future female athletes will credit for saving their sports. The transgender movement is not going away. They are an arm of the Democrat party, the party that claims to champion women's rights, but is actively participating in erasing women. As more female athletes speak up, the more insistent the transgender movement may become about their athletes. But Riley Gaines may have said it best on X after the Oregon track meet on Saturday. "Girls have had enough."
Watch this.
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) May 31, 2025
Two female athletes in Oregon refused to stand on the podium because a boy was awarded a place.
Girls have had enough.
pic.twitter.com/MhCgZ2zLou
