Public debate over the participation of transgender women in women’s sports has proliferated in recent  years, raising questions of fairness in contexts ranging from the Olympics to elementary school sports teams. School districts and athletics associations typically regulate who can participate in their sports  leagues, and many have implemented policies that allow students to participate on teams that align with  their gender identity at some levels of competition. In the past few years, however, many states have  passed laws preventing transgender women and girls from participating in women’s interscholastic sports. 

These laws, which often state their purpose as protecting women’s sports, function by limiting  participation on sports teams “based on the biological sex at birth of team members.” Proponents of this  legislation argue that male physiology confers inherent physical benefits and that “biological females” have a competitive disadvantage if “biological males” are allowed to play with or against them on  women’s teams. Transgender student-athletes and their parents have contested these laws and the  underlying theories of fairness in several lawsuits across the country. Generally, these lawsuits claim that  such laws violate Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 (Title IX) and the Equal Protection  clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.