Leagues Should Stand for Women's Empowerment, Call Foul on Boys in Girls’ Sports
Just days after Megan Rapinoe announced her retirement from professional soccer, she revealed her new mission: lobbying to get boys into girls’ sports.
The irony of setting out to destroy the platform that created her career is staggering.
Rapinoe is one of the 10 highest-paid women’s soccer players in the world — in fact, she’s competing this week at the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
But she’ll soon be back on American soil — working to rob future generations of that same success by destroying the concept of a level playing field and making it harder for women to compete and win.
As a former athlete, WNBA team owner, and Presidential Delegate to the 2019 World Cup, I was at the forefront of advocating for women’s sports for decades.
That’s why I can say this wholeheartedly: the trans-activist movement in the U.S. has become a serious threat to women’s advancement and empowerment today.
Almost everyone understands that men have a biological advantage over women.
No one could have illustrated the disparity better than Rapinoe herself — who, along with the entire U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team, was famously beaten in a soccer match by a group of 15-year-old boys in 2017.
Nonetheless, the growing cacophony of professional athletes calling for men in women’s sports is real. Brittney Griner called it a "crime" to ban men from women’s sports.
Sue Bird signed a letter opposing a congressional ban on the practice.
And now, more players like Rapinoe — once role models for little girls across the country — are leaving behind star-studded careers to advocate against women-only sports and locker rooms.
Their appeals have been effective. In 2021, the National Women’s Soccer League announced it would allow biological men in the league — followed soon after by several other national women’s teams.
The leagues that remain, including the WNBA, have been oddly silent on the matter.
This is despite the fact that the majority of Americans oppose men in women’s sports.
In their silence — or worse, acquiescence — these women’s sports leaders fail to support the ideals they claim to promote, jeopardizing the future opportunity of girls to compete safely and confidently at every level.
Under the once-commonplace view that women deserve equal opportunity, the leagues offered a level playing field for them to compete — rewarding the sacrifice, dedication, talents, and teamwork of women and girls across America.
In a turnabout from the foundational reason women’s leagues were formed, if women are forced to compete against men, not only does it change the game at the highest levels, but it will set a precedent for sports at every level.
Already, boys are dominating girls’ sports in middle and high schools across America — and if the country’s top leagues give in now, we will only see more instances of girls losing championships, scholarships, and the will to try at all.
This issue isn’t going away. I first spoke out about it in 2020 as the first U.S. senator to introduce the recently passed U.S. House bill to protect girls’ sports.
Since then, the pressure to allow biological males in girls’ locker rooms and sports has only grown. This is exactly why, despite the appeals of their most famous players, women’s professional sports leagues must lead by embracing women and reject political activists by banning biological men.
The level playing field established by women’s sports has inspired, protected, and promoted generations of girls who have seen benefits well beyond the game.
Now, thanks to the turncoat activism of the star athletes who benefitted most from the very system they seek to destroy, that equal opportunity is in real jeopardy for every future female champion.
If leagues believe in women’s empowerment, they have a responsibility to reject boys in girls’ sports and call foul on this unfair movement, to refocus on leveling the playing field for women.
Kelly Loeffler is a former U.S. Senator from the state of Georgia, who also served as co-owner of the WNBA Atlanta Dream from 2011-2021 and as a Presidential Delegate to the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2019.