The US Supreme Court's recent ruling allowing states to restrict participation in girls' and women's sports to 'biological females' has been condemned as an assault on bodily autonomy. The decision, which upholds bans in 27 states, was penned by Justice Brett Kavanaugh and aligns with President Donald Trump's executive order 'Keeping Men out of Women's Sports.'
Background of the Ruling
The cases before the court challenged West Virginia's Save Women's Sports Act and Idaho's Fairness in Women's Sports Act. The majority opinion found these laws legal under Title IX and constitutional under the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause. Trump's executive order, issued in February 2025, withdraws funding from educational programs that 'deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities,' citing safety, fairness, dignity, and truth.
Critique of the Decision
Judith Levine, a Brooklyn-based journalist, argues that the bans have nothing to do with privacy, safety, fairness, or dignity. Instead, they deprive transgender athletes of these very protections. 'A half-century of science has discovered the protean nature of sex, gender, and desire,' Levine writes. She notes that medical advances like safe contraceptives and puberty blockers have enabled greater bodily autonomy for women and trans people, which religious conservatives now seek to reverse.
Political Context
The ruling is part of a broader assault on bodily autonomy by the Trump administration. In 2022, Dobbs v Jackson overturned Roe v Wade, leading to abortion bans in 21 states. Republicans have spent $215 million on ads vilifying trans people. Trump's executive orders have also targeted gender-affirming care and trans military service members, with the Supreme Court allowing a ban on trans service members in May 2025 and upholding Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for minors in June 2025.
Pseudoscience and Ideology
Levine accuses the right of deploying pseudoscience to justify the bans. Justice Clarence Thomas's concurrence argued that sex is an immutable, binary biological characteristic. However, Levine counters that humanity cannot be divided into two simple categories, as some people are born with mosaic chromosomes or both male and female sex characteristics. 'Trans people themselves are proof that sex is not immutable,' she writes.
Impact on Trans People
The ruling and related policies effectively erase trans existence, Levine argues. Policies requiring sex markers on passports to match birth certificates disable trans people in everyday life and bureaucratically eliminate their identity. 'If a person is not real, the state is not obligated to recognize their identity, much less protect their equality,' she states. The crusade against trans rights inflicts pain but will not succeed in making trans people disappear.
