Will Democrats stand up for women or let men destroy girls’ sports?
In February, surrounded by young female athletes, President Donald Trump signed the Executive Order "Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports." No need to parse any legalese, the White House made the administration’s vision clear: any athletic program receiving federal dollars must ensure that only women compete in women's sports.
Now it’s time to make this law. Executive orders are too easily changed. If former Vice President Kamala Harris were to become president in four years, she would immediately reverse Trump’s executive orders, stripping protections from women and inviting men back in to dominate and disrupt women’s sports and enter women-only spaces.
That’s why it is critical that the U.S. Senate passes Alabama Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville’s "Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2025." This commonsense law has already passed the House with bipartisan support. Now, it’s up to the Senate.
The vote to proceed on this legislation is expected to take place today, Monday, March 3, 2025. With all 53 Republican senators supporting the legislation, seven Democrat senators need to vote to allow the legislation to be considered.
Seven Democrats have to decide to stand with the overwhelming majority of the American people – 79% percent according to the most recent New York Times poll – who believe that boys and men, regardless of how they identify themselves, should not be allowed into women’s sports.
It’s shocking that this federal law is even needed. It’s shocking that the outcome is uncertain. This should pass unanimously by voice vote.
Title IX became law in 1972 to ensure that women have equal access to educational opportunities, including in sports. Everyone at the time and until just a few short years ago recognized that providing women equal opportunities in athletics required that women have leagues of their own.
As everyone knows, men have physical advantages over women that matter for athletic competitions. Men’s bodies are naturally bigger, stronger, faster, feature larger hearts and lungs and enjoy a host of other structural advantages. This is why we have separate categories for men and women in the first place. It is why men’s world records consistently top women’s records.
Allowing men to compete in women’s sports puts women on an un-level playing field. Women are less likely to win or even make the team; and they are more likely to get hurt, especially very hurt. Unfortunately, we have already seen women sustain lasting physical injury when they have had to face men in competitions meant for women.
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The real question is, are Democrat senators so beholden to the fringe political movement that they will continue to deprioritize women’s rights and safety in favor of men’s feelings?
Rank-and-file Democrat women are horrified by how the party has been hijacked by radical gender ideology that insists that sex differences aren’t real. Brave feminists and Democrats – like Kara Dansky, who wrote "The Reckoning: How the Democrats and the Left Betrayed Women and Girls," tennis star Martina Navratilova, and the women leading the activist organization Women’s Liberation Front – have called this out for what it is: Misogyny and the resurrection of plain old sexism under the guise of accommodating men who identify as women.
Today’s vote specifically impacts female athletes competing in U.S. colleges and schools. Will Democrat senators send a message that they believe that women should have the opportunity to win athletic competitions and safely compete? Do they want young girls to continue pursuing sports scholarships or to accept that they are likely to lose their spots and dreams to men who claim a female identity?
But this isn’t just about female athletes. Democrat senators will also be showing where they stand when it comes to the women who today are suffering in prisons because of a system that has allowed men — including violent, convicted male sex offenders — to claim to identify as women and gain access to women’s facilities. It’s also about women and girls who have been forced to endure men – including registered sex offenders – in their locker rooms where they are expected to undress while these men watch them and expose themselves.
Whose side are these Democrat senators on? Do they stand with women? Or do they stand against them? We will know today.
Victoria Coley, a former Clemson club lacrosse all-star who facilitated Clemson D1 status advocacy, is vice president of communications at Independent Women.