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A coalition of nine U.S. senators and 121 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, led by Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vermont), has filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to strike down state laws in Idaho and West Virginia that bar transgender girls from participating on girls’ school sports teams. The brief was submitted in the consolidated cases involving plaintiffs Lindsay Hecox in Idaho and B.P.J. in West Virginia.
Vermont does not ban transgender participation in sports; quite the opposite. Mid-Vermont Christian School in Quechee was banned from participation in school sports competition when it refused to play a tournament game against a team with a biological male playing center on its basketball team. Mid-Vermont Christian has since prevailed in a lawsuit, and its rights to participate in Interscholastic sports have been restored.
As the Senate Pro Tem of the Vermont Senate, Balint was instrumental in passing the first state law about transgender students’ use of bathrooms. Act 127 took effect on July 1, 2018. All single-user bathrooms in public buildings or places of public accommodation shall be labeled “restroom” or “bathroom” and be made available for use by persons of any gender or who identify as neither gender. Since then, the use of bathrooms and locker rooms by transgender students has been a cultural and legal flashpoint nationally and in Vermont.
The lawmakers backing the brief filed this month, all Democrats, argue that categorical bans based on “reproductive biology” violate Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause and would harm both transgender and cisgender students. They cite several incidents in which cisgender girls were subjected to investigations or public accusations after being perceived as not looking “feminine enough.” The brief points to cases in Utah and Florida where student-athletes faced scrutiny of their physical characteristics under similar policies.
“Parents should be concerned by the idea that under these laws a school may investigate their child’s physical attributes,” the brief states, adding that no child should face questions about their body in order to participate in school athletics.
The lawmakers also contend that categorical bans prevent transgender students from receiving the educational and social benefits associated with school sports. They cite testimony from young athletes describing friendships, confidence, and a sense of belonging gained from playing on school teams. The brief argues that bans applying equally to kindergartners and college athletes are overly broad and not substantially related to any legitimate government objective.
Supporters of such bans, including officials in Idaho and West Virginia, maintain that separating teams by sex assigned at birth is necessary to preserve fairness and competitive balance in girls’ and women’s sports. They argue that allowing transgender girls to compete could disadvantage cisgender athletes in certain sports.
The brief also highlights multiple attempts in recent years to amend Title IX to define eligibility according to “reproductive biology.” All have failed in Congress, which the authors say underscores that the existing law does not support categorical exclusions of transgender students. Women’s rights and civil rights organizations warned Congress that such changes could require schools to adopt invasive sex-verification procedures and could subject girls to harassment.
Although the signatories are Democrats, the brief notes that some Republican governors have previously vetoed similar legislation in their states, citing lack of evidence that fairness issues exist in school sports and concerns about discrimination.
The Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments later in the term and could issue a ruling that shapes how schools nationwide determine athletic eligibility for transgender students.
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Balint and the other elected officials who signed onto this amicus brief are insane and need to be voted out. No evidence of lack of fairness? How about the female high school soccer player who suffered a brain injury when a biological male spiked the ball in her face, or the female Olympic boxer who got the crap beaten out of her by the trans boxer? We need elected officials who believe science and live in reality.
Tell that to Chittenden County. They decide who represents us.
We voted for Trump for the very reason because the rainbow flag people have gone too far and need to be put in check. Vote out democrats 2026 including Charity Clark.
Note the fear-mongering of invasive gender determining inspections. Use birth certificates, which should not be against the law to change.
Use genetic testing, which has been done by many international sports rule-making bodies for decades. With rare exceptions, all humans are either XX or XY. We just need to label sports, changing/restroom facilities and prisons as XX or XY. Biology over psychology. It’s not complicated.
Perhaps Becca Balint needs to play a sport with a man twice her size and then not cry when she is harmed. She should step out and show how it is done. Let’s not be a coward and sit in an office watching young women get harmed, but actually feel the pain of what she is wanting young women to have happen to them. Becca Balint hates women and she is proving it every single day. If you have daughters or wives and you vote for this woman, you may want to rethink what she is actually doing to our young women. No, they don’t deserve men in their locker rooms either. Becca Balint is a very sick woman and needs to be voted out.
Another way to address this issue is to expand current sports programs to include “all-gender teams”. Participation in “all-gender teams” would be voluntary. If a school system does not have sufficient student interest to field a team in a sport, it can partner with another school system.
Rep. Balint is wrong again. When will we vote ourselves out of this embarrassing nonsense pit?
As soon as we can dig a huge trench around Chittenden County and push it across the lake and make it New York’s problem.
It will probably be different when a male is found in her daughters locker room after a soccer game or whatever.
…Or a large, hairy person with a penis shows up at a dykes-only retreat and makes vile grunting sounds the entire time.
If anything , she has demonstrated the unique ability to be on the wrong side of things.
Any chance the good people of Vermont will send her packing. My guess is at this point they enjoy the pain- and she is just the person to provide it.
Vermont, needs this Nonsense Ludicrous so-called lawmaker gone on or before November 3rd 2026
Wake to F up Vermonters wake up!!
How about banning all gender identities except the one you were born with until after HS graduation? Make it that simple.
That would require common sense that not many seem to have these days!!!
That still leaves women’s sports in jeopardy. Not to mention plain ‘ol reality. One CANNOT alter one’s sex.
Vermont’s “scrappy little dyke” (her words not mine) needs to get her head checked.
It’s hard to believe that anyone really believes what she is selling and that this conversation is still alive Makes me think the left has nothing to sell to voters, so they just keep beating this drum for attention. Very sad. Vermonters deserve better than Becca Ballint.
A head check would be difficult considering where her head is ……
Too funny, Patrick.
The empress has no clothes.
But one day this utter insanity will be seen for the what it is, the truth will be self-evident, and many will be ashamed for having bought into the lie.
Who would have ever thought that it wasn’t already more than self-evident that individuals who have male genitalia are males and those with female genitalia, females?? I personally recall understanding this by about age five.
These extremists are so incredibly mentally ill that they are obviously beyond help, yet Vermonters somehow keep electing them to represent their interests statewide & in D.C.
The only question then that remains is just how mentally ill are each & every one of their supporters?
What happened to the president’s executive order banning fake girls from playing girl’s sports? Does that have any weight here or does there need to be a law in each state? Balint, of course, is an idiot.
Wonder if she had a daughter playing sports if she would reconsider her view.?
Her response is the kind of reaction an elected official makes when belonging to a cabal or cult, and no analytical or objective thought process is involved. This is what is to be expected when the voters who installed her are also brainwashed members of a cabal or cult who are incapable of analytical or objective thought processes, getting their information from biased sources, while demanding that we adhere to “settled science”.
It’s what happens when Planned Parenthood and UVMMC own the levers of power.
I am so sick of getting this stuff shoved down our throats. Kids in school are now forced to read books about being a transgender. (A previous article about this in an earlier edition of VDC) I don’t think that transgenders belong in woman’s sport if they identify as a woman or a woman identifying as a man in men’s sports. Nor should they be in the locker rooms or bathrooms. It doesn’t matter what they identify as, that is their business, but biological men are much stronger than biological woman, and I think that is a very unfair advantage when it comes to sports. I’m sorry but I wouldn’t want a transgender man identifying as a woman in the woman’s locker room or the woman’s bathroom. The same goes for a woman identifying as a man in the men’s room. This stuff has gotten way out of hand, if these people choose to change their sex, that is their business but to force it upon those who don’t make that choice or choose that kind of lifestyle. That is just plain wrong and disrespectful. You have no right to force this stuff down our throats, expecting special treatment or more rights. I am just glad that I went to school in the era where they taught that men are men and woman are woman. Nobody deserves special rights or demand special treatment or different laws that pertain to whatever choice they make. Let’s get back to learning reading, writing and arithmetic. Teach kids today how to write in cursive or read an analog clock, balancing a checkbook etc. Stop forcing kids to learn about this alternative lifestyle and ramming it down their throats and ours. All this was a result of the choices that you made. Some of us (the majority) choose different kind of lifestyles.
You nailed it Jane!
Do these three things, problem solved…
Make trans teams!
No trans in locker rooms!
Single stall bathrooms!
Everyone wins!