Florida Law Prohibiting Biological Males from Female Sports Upheld by the Federal Court

A federal court ruled that Florida’s new law, which bans biological males from participating in female sports, is valid because it aims to protect and promote athletic opportunities for girls.

The law was signed in 2021 by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the wake of a series of controversies around the country involving transgender-identifying males defeating biological girls in sports. In Connecticut, for example, two high school athletes who are biologically assigned male but who identify as female won 15 state track championships in the female division. They dubbed it the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act.

A Broward County high school student who is male but identifies as female and wants to play on the girl’s volleyball and soccer teams sued in 2021.

Federal Judge Roy K. Altman dismissed the suit, ruling that the law does not violate Title IX or the U.S. Constitution.

The laws’s “gender-based classifications are rooted in real differences between the sexes, not stereotypes,” Altman wrote.

Altman, a Trump nominee, wrote that the statute acknowledges that most men and women have different physical attributes. Altman, a Trump nominee, wrote that ignoring those differences would disserve the purpose of the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution, which is to safeguard the principle that “all persons similarly situated should be treated alike.”

Courts across the country have also agreed that the government must protect and promote athletic opportunities for girls due to the historical imbalance. 

Alliance Defending Freedom, which filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the law, applauded Altman’s decision. 

“The court was right to uphold Florida’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act. Christiana Kiefer, a senior counsel at ADF, says Florida is trying to protect female athletes from men. “Biological differences matter. Lawmakers are working to ensure equal opportunities for women and common sense, considering men’s natural physical advantages. If men are allowed to compete in women’s sports, women will continue to face the discrimination that Title IX prohibits.”