WoLF and CWA Submit 7th Circuit Amicus Brief to Support Female-Only Athletics Teams
Last week, WoLF submitted a co-authored amicus brief for A.M. v. Indianapolis Public Schools, a Title IX athletics case in the 7th Judicial Circuit Court. This US federal court has appellate jurisdiction in Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin. This story was covered by The Post Millennial on September 23, 2022.
The amicus brief is related to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU against Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS). On July 1, 2022, a new Indiana law went into effect: Indiana Code 20-33-13-4. It prohibits males from participating on athletic teams that are designated for females, girls, and/or women. As usual, the ACLU promoted the anti-science belief that being male or female is a “feeling” or a “belief.” Claiming that a young boy was actually a girl and should be allowed to play on a girls’ softball team, the ACLU filed the lawsuit on behalf of the young boy and his mother.
In July, federal Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson granted a preliminary injunction, allowing the young boy to continue playing on the girls’ team. Judge Magnus-Stinson stated that IPS would be breaking federal law if it “discriminated” against the boy on the basis of sex. In her order, the judge used the phrase “transgender females” when describing males – this is deeply concerning to all of us who care about how words and definitions are continually being obfuscated and changed to promote gender ideology. Judge Magnus-Stinson also stated that requiring the boy to play on the boys’ team would cause “irreparable harm” to him.
In early September, the Indiana attorney general’s office asked the 7th Circuit Court to overturn Judge Magnus-Stinson’s ruling. Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) also submitted an amicus brief in this case.
WoLF submitted its amicus brief in partnership with Concerned Women for America (CWA). CWA is a public policy women’s organization that shares WoLF’s values related to the protection of single-sex spaces, resources, and sports. The amicus brief was written by Anna St. John of the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute. WoLF is grateful to CWA and Ms. St. John for their partnership in this collaborative project.
Some of the major arguments outlined in our brief include the benefits of single-sex sports for women and girls; how those benefits are supported by established laws; how women and girls are harmed by the intrusion of male athletes into female sports; and why beliefs about “gender identity” should not be used to supersede scientific facts about human biology. In the amicus brief, we argue that “gender identity” is a quasi-spiritual belief system that is “grounded in emotion and mental perception” rather than science or facts. We state that it is offensive to women to conflate “femininity” with the same thing as being female, and that no one – male or female – should be forced by law to claim that humans can transition into the opposite sex.
WoLF was honored to have this opportunity to submit an amicus brief in partnership with CWA. We are confident that this document will substantively contribute to ongoing legal conversations regarding the rights of women and girls in many areas of life, including the provision of single-sex sports.