Transgenderism Won’t Let Girls Say No

A great many champions of women's rights (Alice Paul, RBG, Shirley Chisholm, Bella Abzug to name a few) must be looking down from the pearly gates in horror at how their work is being unwound.

Transgenderism Won’t Let Girls Say No

Two girls in an Oregon track meet tried to protest when forced to run against a boy.

By Jessica Hart Steinmann and Leigh Ann O’Neill, WSJ

June 5, 2025 5:24 pm ET

High-school girls in states across the country are being forced to make a choice no athlete should ever have to face: compete against a male athlete in a girls-only event, or walk away from the sport they’ve trained their whole lives for. This isn’t theoretical, and it isn’t limited to a few cases. It’s happening with the full knowledge and determined endorsement of school and athletic officials.

At this season’s Oregon track and field state championships, a male athlete, who finished last in the boys’ competition two years ago, competed in the girls’ high jump. He finished fifth. Across Oregon, female athletes are being coerced to surrender their integrity and dignity to stand on a podium beside someone who doesn’t belong in their category.

When girls tell the truth, they face consequences. This weekend, Reese Eckard and Alexa Anderson, who placed fourth and third respectively in the state high-jump event, chose not to take the podium alongside the male competitor. Instead, they stood respectfully in front of the podium in silent protest—refusing to endorse what they knew was wrong. For that, they were publicly admonished by an official and told to move to the side.

Two teenage girls, peacefully expressing disagreement with a policy that disadvantages women, were shamed and silenced for daring to object. Their speech was chilled, their views pushed to the margins—literally.

This is the toxic power of indoctrination. It doesn’t only rewrite the rules of competition—it inflicts a moral injury. It turns principled dissent into misconduct and pressures girls into submission by making them fear the consequences of speaking the truth. This is authoritarianism dressed up as empathy.

Radical gender ideology teaches that recognition of biological reality is bigotry. It trains girls to suppress their instincts, to reject the evidence of their own eyes, to doubt the fairness of rules that were designed to protect them. When they protest—even peacefully—they’re pushed aside.

Girls’ sports exist to ensure equal footing—not to erase the differences between the sexes. Males have physical advantages that identity politics can’t undo. Without sex-based categories in most sports, girls lose. They’re losing races, titles, opportunities—and, worst of all, their voice. The lesson for girls is that it’s unsafe to stand up against unfairness.

Too often, this injustice hides behind slogans like “be kind” and “be inclusive.” But it isn’t kind to lie to girls or inclusive to force them to act agreeable while their achievements are taken by someone who doesn’t belong in their lane. And it isn’t only a policy failure—it’s a moral failure by adults who know better and who countenance injustice out of malice or cowardice.

This movement doesn’t only undermine fairness—it reduces womanhood to a costume. It says a boy in spikes belongs on a girls’ podium with a girl who’s trained for six years. But truth still matters. Under federal law, especially Title IX, no school receiving public funding may allow males to compete in female sports.

Oregon is defying that. So are many other states. That’s why we need legal action, not only outcry. Courts must do what school officials refuse to: uphold the rights of girls.

Ms. Steinmann is executive general counsel at the America First Policy Institute. Ms. O’Neill serves is chief of staff of the institute’s Center for Litigation.