The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday filed a statement of interest in the Idaho case, saying the law provides equal protection for women. “Allowing biological males to compete in all-female sports is fundamentally unfair to female athletes,” Attorney General William Barr said. And in a recent 45-page letter, the U.S. Education Department threatened to withhold federal funding from Connecticut public schools for failing to protect female student-athletes under Title IX, the federal law designed to ensure equal opportunities for women and girls in education and school-based athletics.

Some of the same professional athletes who have publicly pushed for equal opportunity and pay for women now want to punish Idaho for trying to assure women don’t have to compete against males who identify as female.

World Cup soccer champion Megan Rapinoe, former tennis star Billie Jean King, WNBA standout Sue Bird, and hundreds of pro-LGBT groups and athletes sent a letter to the NCAA on June 10 asking the organization to bar Idaho from hosting NCAA basketball tournament play unless it repeals the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act. Boise State University is scheduled to hold first- and second-round men’s games in 2021.

When the act takes effect on July 1, Idaho will become the first state to protect girls and women from competing against males who identify as female in sports at all public schools, colleges, and universities. After the law passed in March, the American Civil Liberties Union asked a judge to block it and sued the state on behalf of two transgender athletes.

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