How Courtrooms Will Crush the War on Women

I know because I'm a plaintiff

I am a 57-year-old woman, mother to two teenage boys, and an old-school feminist who spent years fighting the glass ceiling and insisting on equal pay for equal work. Today, I am appalled at the direct assault on women, and I, along with many other women, worked far too hard to allow the progressives to take us back 50 years. It is incumbent on all of us to stand up, speak out, and end this insanity.

As we mark the fifth anniversary of school closures, it is important to understand that this is the fight of 2025.

President Trump issued two executive orders regarding the definition of sex and keeping men out of women's sports, yet despite these orders, many states are choosing not to comply, and in some cases, they are doubling down. Last month, the Governor of Maine told the President that her state would risk losing federal funding and would not comply with the orders.

Maine is not alone in its current position.

According to a nonprofit think tank, Movement Advancement Project (MAP), approximately half of the states in the country allow boys to compete in girls’ sports.

27 states have laws or regulations that ban transgender students from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity, and 23 states allow transgender students to participate in sports consistent with their gender identity.

Pennsylvania is one of the 23 states that not only allows students to compete in the sports’ category of their choice — the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (PHRC), mandates the policy. In 2023, PHRC changed its regulations to include gender expression, gender identity, and affectional or sexual orientation in the definition of “sex.” According to the PHRC, every school district is legally obligated to follow the regulations, despite the executive orders.

These regulations not only require school districts to allow male students to compete in girls’ sports, but they also allow and require students to be able to use the bathroom of their choice, based on their gender identity which can change on a daily basis.

Many parents and elected officials believe the PHRC regulations are in violation of the Pennsylvania and U.S. Constitution, in addition to the executive orders.

As a result, the firm of Dillon, McCandless, King, Coulter & Graham, located in Western Pennsylvania and special counsel to the Thomas More Society, filed a petition last week against the Governor and the PHRC, alleging the regulations are a violation of the state constitution.

“In violation of the Pennsylvania Constitution, the PHRC has created a heretofore unimagined meaning of ‘sex’ within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” the petition alleges. “Under the PHRC regulations, there are multiple classifications of persons such as males, females, nonbinary, heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, or asexual individuals who by inclination, practice, identity or expression, having a history thereof, or being perceived, presumed or identified by others as having such an orientation.”

The petition was filed on behalf of two school districts, two elected state representatives, one elected school board director, and two parents, one of whom is me.

The PHRC regulations are not the only policies that school districts are legally expected to follow. For students competing in secondary sports, districts are expected to follow the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) regulations which are now in partial conflict with PHRC.

In late February, at the PIAA Board of Directors meeting, the organization made changes to its regulations. Shown below, the regulations eliminate the use of the term “gender,” and now only refer to “sex.” However, there is still a clause allowing the school to determine a student’s sex if there is any question or uncertainty.

This wishy-washy language is confusing and not unequivocal and continues to allow boys to compete in girls’ sports. However, despite the perplexing and lax policy, there are already school districts in the state refusing to comply. Philadelphia School District, the largest district in the state, announced shortly after the revised PIAA regulations were enacted that they would not comply. Another Southeastern Pennsylvania school district, Springfield Township, announced they would risk the loss of federal funding based on their refusal to comply.

These brazen positions by school districts leave us no choice but to fight the battle in court.

The importance of overturning the PHRC regulations cannot be overstated.

And this is true for all 23 states in the country that currently have laws or regulations that allow and force school districts to push boys in girls’ sports and their bathrooms.

The only way now to fight this war in progressive states is to take legal action. We found attorneys — one of whom is an elected state representative — who were willing to stand up for girls’ rights and attempt to restore sanity to our government.

You can do the same.

Contact like-minded legislators and force them to champion this issue, ask them to assist in finding an attorney or an organization that will fund the litigation.

This is the issue of our time right now.

We fought against school closures and won.

We fought against forcible masking of our children, and we won.

Now we must stand up for women and our daughters and win.

As we mark the fifth anniversary of the extended school closures that spurred many of us into action, it is imperative for us to continue the fight against the progressive movement that continues its quest to destroy our children.