An emergency appeal reaches the U.S. Supreme Court from West Virginia, which is trying to safeguard girls’ sports teams against biological males pretending to be girls. A well-reasoned federal district court decision upheld its law against a constitutional challenge on behalf of an 11-year-old, but then a majority-Democrat panel on the Fourth Circuit suspended the good law.
This case is being called the most important yet in the transgender movement, which is suddenly invading nearly every school and government program. Chief Justice John Roberts ordered a response to West Virginia to be filed by noon next Monday, March 20, and already amicus briefs in support of West Virginia’s necessary law have been filed.
The lower federal courts held that transgenders are entitled to a heightened form of protection under the Constitution, and that issue is now before the Supreme Court. Two years ago the Supreme Court ducked a case concerning an attempt by a school board to keep biological boys and girls out of each others’ restrooms.
In that lawsuit arising from Gloucester High School in Virginia, the Supreme Court denied a petition for certiorari on this issue of forcing transgenderism on schools. That handed transgender activists a victory by leaving intact the Fourth Circuit ruling against the school board, which declared transgender conduct to be a new constitutional right and a Title IX federal right in schools.
Aided by desires to attract attention, hordes of children are declaring an interest in being transgender now. Last month it was reported that several 5th graders told their teacher that they wanted to become transgender, and when the teacher asked the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital for advice its response was to affirm the behavior, without suggesting that the parents be informed.
“What they are teaching in schools today is insane,” Trump declared Monday at a campaign stop in Davenport, Iowa. “I will bring parental rights back into our school system,” he vowed by promising to cut off federal funding to public schools that push the liberal agenda.
Trump and nearly all Republicans have denounced the unfairness about biological boys invading girls’ sports, shattering girls’ records, and sometimes even causing physical injury to girls in contact sports. More is at stake than merely the integrity of girls’ sports: transgender operations inflict lifelong harm on children, and no ethical consent can be given for that.
Banning biological boys from girls’ sports would stem some of the motivation, as competition in school sports is intense with pride and college scholarships hanging in the balance. Some parents whose boys are not good enough to win on a boys team may be just fine with trying to transform them into girls if it means trophies, championships, and scholarships will result.
Billions of taxpayer dollars are flowing to medical universities willing to take the money and perform operations and treatments, to acclaim by liberals who see this a way to accomplish goals that Phyllis Schlafly warned against 50 years ago. Social media applauds those on TikTok and elsewhere who announce with a dance video or photos that suddenly they self-identify with the opposite sex.
Conservative legislatures are slow to turn off the faucet, or fire hydrant, that is watering all this. The Republican Missouri state senate adjourned one day in disarray rather than debate legislation to stop encouraging this harmful gender dysphoria in children.
A Canadian physician who was a leader on transgender treatments decades ago admits now that it was a mistake. “We were wrong,” Dr. Susan Bradley recently announced.
“They’re not as irreversible as we always thought, and they have longer term effects on kids’ growth and development, including making them sterile and quite a number of things affecting their bone growth,” she added. “I had this skepticism in the back of my mind all the time that maybe we were actually colluding and not helping” the children who wanted to switch genders.
Republicans are in a majority in most state legislatures, which are convening now but many will adjourn this spring for the year or, as in Texas, adjourn for two years. Last year Texas Republicans transferred $105 million to the Texas Child Mental Health Consortium, which partly funds promotion of transgenderism in schoolchildren.
Legislation is being considered now in Texas to ban transgender procedures on children, as South Dakota enacted and Gov. Kristi Noem signed. Last week West Virginia, which reportedly has more transgender youths than any state, passed a bill banning transgender procedures on kids, but its governor has not yet said whether he’ll sign it into law.
These good state laws are immediately challenged in federal court by the well-funded transgender movement. Trump has the best record of any politician in making strong judicial appointments, which are needed now more than ever.
John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the continuing Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations with writing and policy work.
