Attorneys general from 28 states demand justice for women athletes sidelined by gender identity policies
Richmond, Virginia – Attorney General Jason Miyares is urging the NCAA to do something he thinks is long overdue: give back the records, titles, and awards of female athletes who, according to him and 27 other attorneys general, lost their rightful recognition because of policies that let biological males compete in women’s sports.
Miyares wrote a letter to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) asking them to give back awards that women athletes had earned but were taken away because of current rules that allow transgender people to compete. The message was clear: female athletes shouldn’t have to share podiums, records, or scholarships with biological males.
“Our daughters deserve to have the same opportunities to succeed as our sons,” said Attorney General Jason Miyares. “Female athletes shouldn’t have to compete against biological males for podium spots, scholarships, or records they rightfully earned. The NCAA should immediately restore the titles and honors taken away from the outstanding female athletes.”
Title IX is the main reason for this effort. It is a federal civil rights statute that was created in 1972 to stop schools, including sports, from discriminating against people based on their sex. Miyares and other attorneys general said that the Biden administration’s attempts to change the definition of “sex” to include “gender identity” go against the basic purpose of Title IX and make it harder to tell the difference between male and female athletes.
Virginia has spoken up about this issue before. Miyares and five other states sued the federal government in April 2024 over the new Title IX interpretation. In January 2025, a court ruled that the policy could not be put into place across the country. This was a big legal win for the lawsuit. Without the decision, schools would have had to let biological males who identify as female use girls’ toilets, locker rooms, and sports teams from kindergarten through college.
Attorneys general from a wide range of places and political parties are working together on this project. They come from Alabama, Texas, Florida, and even Guam. Together, they are part of a rising group that is against the NCAA’s approach to gender in sports and is calling for what they call fairness in women’s sports.
The letter, which is now public, explains their point of view and asks the NCAA to fix what they see as a major injustice: the erasing of female athletes’ achievements under fair competition regulations. The group thinks that the organization has a duty to protect the integrity of women’s sports and make sure that Title IX’s promise of equal opportunity stays strong.
