A Pivotal Vote on the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act Could Redefine Fairness in Athletics
Today, the U.S. Senate is set to cast a critical vote on the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, a bill that seeks to restrict participation in women’s and girls’ sports to athletes identified as female at birth. Introduced by Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), the legislation aims to amend Title IX—the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in education—to define sex solely based on “reproductive biology and genetics at birth.” If passed, this bill could significantly alter the landscape of school athletics, prohibiting transgender women and girls from competing on teams at federally funded institutions.
60 Yes Votes
The vote, scheduled as a procedural step to break a filibuster, requires 60 “yea” votes to advance in the Republican-controlled Senate, where the GOP holds a 53-47 majority. This means at least seven Democrats would need to cross party lines for the bill to proceed. The House already passed a similar measure in January 2025 with a 218-206 vote, supported by all Republicans and two Texas Democrats, Reps. Henry Cuellar and Vicente Gonzalez.
The push for this legislation aligns with President Trump’s executive order barring transgender women from women’s sports, a policy that ties federal funding to compliance—rewarding schools that follow it and penalizing those that don’t.
Riley Gaines
Proponents, including former competitive swimmer Riley Gaines, argue that it’s essential to protect opportunities for cisgender female athletes. In a post on X this morning, Gaines warned Senate Democrats planning to vote “no” that they could face “relentless campaign ads in 2026,” signaling the political stakes tied to this issue. Advocates point to instances like a recent high school track meet where transgender athlete AB Hernandez reportedly outperformed competitors, though detailed performance data remains unverified and anecdotal at this stage.
Public sentiment leans heavily in favor of such restrictions. Recent polls indicate that approximately two-thirds of Americans support policies requiring transgender athletes to compete according to their sex assigned at birth.
Recognize the clear differences between men and women, the book of Genesis describes two genders that God created.
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”