State AG Rokita Fights ACLU Over Girls Sports

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita continues to defend a new Indiana law protecting girls’ sports against a baseless lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union.

“It’s called Hoosier common sense,” Rokita said. “Biological males have certain physiological advantages that make it unfair to allow them to compete for spots on girls’ sports teams. The law passed by the Indiana General Assembly simply acknowledges that science and protects the integrity of girls’ sports in K-12 schools.”

Rokita filed a brief Friday opposing the ACLU’s motion for a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the new law, House Enrolled Act 1041.

“After all the years of hard work to ensure equal opportunities for girls and women,” Rokita said, “it’s unconscionable that these leftists are trying to tear down that progress in the name of nonsensical wokeism.”

The ACLU is representing a 10-year-old Indianapolis Public Schools student who was born a male but began identifying as female by age 4 and, with parental support, took puberty blockers to avoid developing male characteristics. Although a biological male, the student wants to play on a school-sponsored girls’ softball team.

The ACLU’s case manifests blatant weaknesses — invoking federal Title IX protections in its argument, for example.

The Title IX law prohibits sex discrimination and requires equal opportunities regardless of sex. But such protections are exactly what the law under challenge by the ACLU helps achieve. Obviously, the ordinary meaning of sex at the time of Title IX’s enactment in 1972 was biological sex, not gender identity.

“I promised Hoosiers when the governor vetoed this law that I would gladly defend it if the legislature overrode the veto,” Rokita said. “Indiana’s lawmakers did their part, and I am doing mine. Hoosier girls deserve no less.”