WoLF Files Amicus Briefs Defending Women’s Right to Privacy in Intimate Spaces

Women and girls deserve privacy where they sleep, bathe, change, and use the toilet. That principle should not be controversial. Yet courts across the country have increasingly been asked to decide whether women and girls must surrender even the most basic bodily boundaries in the name of “gender identity.”

This month, the Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF) filed two amicus briefs in separate cases raising the same fundamental question: Do women and girls have the right to single-sex intimate spaces?

To most people, the answer is obvious. But there continue to be those who push against these bodily boundaries and are willing to defend their positions as far as the highest courts in the country.

The cases, both of which were in the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, each addressed

Wailes v. Jefferson County Public Schools: When Girls Are Forced to Share Beds with Boys

In Wailes v. Jefferson County Public Schools, a middle school girl was forced by her school district to share a bed with a male student who identifies as female during a school trip.

When she objected, the school did not accommodate her needs. Instead, it treated her request for privacy as discrimination.

WoLF’s amicus brief explains why this is a profound violation of girls’ rights.

Schools routinely separate students by sex for overnight trips because girls are vulnerable when sleeping, changing clothes, or bathing. These policies exist to protect girls, not to exclude anyone out of prejudice. Forcing a girl to share a bed with a male—regardless of how he identifies - strips her of bodily autonomy and puts her in an impossible position: submit or be punished.

Our brief makes clear that no child should be coerced into intimate physical proximity with a member of the opposite sex in order to participate in school activities. Protecting girls’ privacy is not bigotry. It is safeguarding.

Holtmeier v. Kappa Kappa Gamma: Do Women Have the Right to Female-Only Associations?

In Holtmeier v. Kappa Kappa Gamma (formerly Westenbroek), female members of a sorority challenged their national organization’s decision to admit a male into their chapter and require the women to live with him in their sorority house.

These women did not sign up to live with men. They joined a women’s organization, in a women’s house, with women-only living spaces - including bathrooms, showers, and sleeping areas.

WoLF’s brief argues that single-sex associations lose their meaning if women cannot define membership by sex. Sororities exist to give women community, safety, and mutual support - often during a vulnerable stage of life. Forcing women to share their home with a man against their will violates their rights to privacy, association, and bodily dignity.

The women in this case were not asking to exclude men from public life. They were asking for the freedom to maintain female-only space in their own residence. That is not discrimination. It is a basic boundary.

Why These Cases Matter

Both cases involve private, intimate spaces - not public accommodations. These are places where women and girls undress, sleep, shower, and use the toilet. Society has always recognized the need for sex separation in these contexts, because women are more vulnerable to male violence and because privacy matters.

Eliminating sex-based boundaries in these spaces does not make women safer or more equal. It makes them less protected, less autonomous, and less free.

These cases also reveal a disturbing pattern: institutions increasingly prioritize ideological compliance over the real-world needs of women and girls. When women and girls object, they are told their discomfort is prejudice - and that they must endure whatever comes next.

WoLF rejects that premise entirely. (WoLF rejects the premise that sex separation isn’t necessary for intimate facilities in public accommodations as well, but it is particularly egregious in cases like these, which go a step further into truly private spaces.)

Women’s Boundaries Are Not Optional

Sex matters. Bodies matter. And women’s consent matters - especially when it comes to who we share our most private spaces with.

Through these amicus briefs, WoLF is standing up for girls who are silenced in schools and women who are overruled in their own homes. We will continue to fight for the simple, radical idea that women deserve privacy, safety, and dignity - no exceptions, no euphemisms, and no ideological carve-outs.

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