Republican lawmakers in Arizona are calling on SCOTUS to take action against transgender girls in sports

The Arizona Legislature enacted the Save Women’s Sports Act (SWSA) in 2022 to “level the playing field for women and girls in Arizona’s schools, colleges, and universities in response to the growing number of cases nationwide Men depriving women of sports. “Opportunities and threats to the physical well-being of women and girls in sports competitions,” says an October 17 press release from Arizona Senate Republicans.

The appeal bringing the case to the federal appeals court came from Arizona State Superintendent of Public Instruction Thomas Horne, Kyrene and Gregory school district superintendent Laura Toenjes, Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen and House Speaker Ben Toma of Arizona in response to the district court’s ruling that SWSA violated the Equal Protection Clause under the 14th Amendment.

The two girls in question, whose names have not been released, are identified in the court ruling as Jane Doe, 11, and Megan Roe, 15, neither of whom have undergone male puberty.

Both girls were diagnosed with gender dysphoria, where a person’s gender identity does not match the gender they were assigned at birth, at a young age and began taking hormone blockers before male puberty began. They also legally changed their names and genders on their passports.

Both girls have played on sports teams and plan to continue to do so, but are prohibited by law. Doe attends Kyrene Aprende Middle School in Chandler and Roe attends Gregory School, a private school in Tucson. According to the ruling, the two girls’ teammates and coaches have no objection to them playing on the girls’ teams.

The court stated that “[t]“Rangender girls who receive puberty-blocking drugs have no athletic advantage over other girls because they do not go through male puberty and do not experience the physiological changes caused by the increased testosterone production associated with male puberty,” and the appeals court confirmed this judgment.

The federal appeals court ruled that banning these two girls from playing on sports teams consistent with their gender identity based solely on the fact that they are transgender constituted discrimination and violated the 14th Amendment.

However, Horne, Petersen and Toma are calling for SCOTUS to closely review the ruling because medical research has shown that prepubescent biological males still have some advantage over prepubescent biological females.

“These include significant differences in running and throwing abilities before puberty, as 9-year-old boys…outperform girls’ running times by…percentages between 11.1 and 15.2%, and boys already outpace girls in throwing speed by 1.5 standard deviation units “4 to 7 years old and the throwing distance improved by 1.5 standard deviation units already at the age of 2 to 4 years,” says the 48-page document requesting a certificate.

Additionally, they state that this case “is an ideal vehicle to resolve these important questions,” meaning that if SCOTUS reviews this ruling, they could determine the constitutionality of these types of rulings – “an important question of federal law , which has not yet been filed.” “But that should be clarified by this court,” it says in the petition. “A review now will remove uncertainty by ensuring state policymakers know whether to separate sports based on biological sex. Laws like Title IX have left a “beneficial legacy for girls and women in sports.”

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Nonetheless, Republican lawmakers in Arizona want full enforcement of the SWSA and a ban on transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports.

“We cannot remain silent and allow this injustice against women and girls to continue,” said Petersen. “We must stand up and fight to protect our daughters, nieces, sisters and granddaughters from bigger and stronger men who claim their identity, their privacy, their sport and put their safety at risk.”