Colorado parents, I have a question. The U.S. Supreme Court just told the country that states have every right to protect girls’ sports based on biological sex. So why is Jefferson County still going to court to keep boys on girls’ teams?
I grew up racing at Jeffco Stadium. My sister and I are still, to this day, the only track athletes in Colorado history to win the grand slam there in a single meet: the 4×800, the 800, the 3200 and the mile, all under Jeffco’s own rules. That stadium is where I learned what it felt like to line up against other girls on a level field and win it fair. It should not be possible for the same district that hosted those records to now be the one leading the fight to keep that field from being level for the next generation of girls. And yet here we are.
On June 30, the Supreme Court ruled that states may bar male athletes from girls’ and women’s sports teams. All nine justices agreed that these protections do not violate Title IX. Six of the nine went further and said the Constitution allows them too. This was as close to a green light as women’s sports advocates have ever gotten from the nation’s highest court. It should have been the moment every school district in this country stopped arguing and started protecting girls.
Jeffco chose the opposite. Federal investigators found that the district was allowing male students to compete on girls’ teams, in violation of Title IX, and told Jeffco to fix it. Jeffco refused.
The school board voted to authorize legal action against the federal government to keep its policy in place. Colorado’s second largest school district, serving tens of thousands of kids and already running a budget deficit, decided that defending this policy in court was worth more than protecting the girls it is supposed to serve. Think about that. Money is tight enough that programs are being cut and families are losing services, and the district’s answer is to spend what’s left fighting to keep boys on girls’ teams rather than simply stopping it.
This is not a hypothetical fight over abstract fairness. It is happening right now, in our schools, to real girls who show up to practice and find out the roster spot they earned went to someone else. We have already watched this play out on the national stage, with swimmers and runners losing titles and podium spots to male-bodied competitors. Jeffco had a chance to make sure that never happens here. Instead, it is spending scarce dollars to make sure it can keep happening.
I understand the instinct toward inclusion. Every child deserves somewhere to belong. But roster spots, practice time, and a shot at the podium are limited. When one of those spots goes to a male athlete, a girl loses it, every single time. That is not inclusion. It is a transfer of opportunity away from girls, and Jeffco is choosing to defend that transfer in court rather than end it.
As a mom to two girls who are just getting started in sports, this is not an abstract legal fight to me. I want every Colorado girl to walk onto that same Jeffco track someday and know the race in front of them is fair. I do not want them to ever have to wonder whether the athlete next to them at the starting line has an advantage no amount of training could ever close, or to lose a spot on a team to someone who was never competing against the same body they are.
Here is the hopeful part. We are not waiting on Jeffco anymore, and we are not waiting on Washington either. The Supreme Court has already done its part. It confirmed, unanimously on the Title IX question, that protecting girls’ sports is not just allowed, it is squarely within our rights. That is the strongest backing this cause has ever had, and it means the outcome in Colorado no longer depends on a school board changing its mind. It depends on us. Ballot Initiative 160 would put that same protection into Colorado law, plainly and without exception: sports for girls stay girls’ sports, based on biological sex. Colorado voters can make that happen ourselves this November, no matter what Jeffco decides to do.
All our girls are watching how this state answers that question, and for the first time in a long time, I feel genuinely hopeful about the answer. We have the highest court in the country behind us, and we have a ballot box that belongs to us.
Fairness for the next generation of Colorado girls is closer than it has been in years, and it is ours to secure. Let’s go get it.
