Over the years, I have invested numerous hours watching my daughters play volleyball. I have watched them push through exhausting practices and learn to trust their teammates. All three played competitively, including one who became a Division I setter at the U.S. Naval Academy.

As a mother of five — three girls and two boys — I have watched sports teach life lessons that reach far outside the court. My daughters and their teammates worked through physical and emotional struggles to achieve their very best.

Protecting those opportunities is personal to me. But so is treating people with kindness. I believe we can hold both convictions without apologizing for either.

A lot of noise surrounds women’s sports. For anyone feeling conflicted, I want to offer this reassurance: You have permission to hold two truths at the same time. Females deserve fairness, safety, and opportunity. Every person deserves kindness and respect.

We should be confident enough to defend both.

For me, that conviction begins with Scripture. Genesis 1:27 tells us that God created mankind in His image: “in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” I understand this passage to affirm that being female, with its own physical reality, is part of God’s design. A woman’s worth does not depend on whether she marries or becomes a mother. She bears God’s image. So does every person whose experience of gender differs from my understanding of this passage.

Our equal dignity does not make our bodies physically identical. Men generally have greater muscle mass and upper-body strength than women. I believe those differences justify preserving a female category in competitive sports.

That is a position about how sports should be organized, not an explanation of why someone is transgender. Researchers have not established a single cause of transgender identity. I can be clear about my convictions while being honest about what science does not yet fully explain.

I lead America’s Women, a nonpartisan organization that encourages women to become educated and involved in their communities. Our work expresses a deep concern for the dignity of women and girls.

That same concern extends to young people struggling with questions of gender and identity. These are real children and families. Their dignity matters too.

I believe love and truth belong together. That conviction should guide how we approach women’s sports.

Love means listening when girls bring up concerns about honest competition or privacy in locker rooms, rather than shaming them into silence.

Love also means protecting transgender-identifying young people from ridicule and helping families find thoughtful support. We can preserve a standard without humiliating someone affected by it.

Truth requires us to acknowledge physical differences that matter in athletic competition.

A 2020 University of Utah study involving 20 men and 19 women found that men generated, on average, 162% more power in a movement designed to simulate a punch. Even the lowest-performing man exceeded the highest-performing woman on that measure. This was not a study of transgender athletes or every sport, but it illustrates why physical differences deserve serious consideration.

The opportunities at stake also deserve attention. HeCheated, an advocacy database opposing male participation in female sports categories, reports 1,522 athletes and 6,899 first-place finishes across sports and competition levels worldwide. Those are the project’s totals, not a count of individual women who lost scholarships. They raise a question worth discussing: What happens to female athletes’ opportunities when the limits of their category change?

For a girl who has trained for years, a place on the podium matters. So does the chance to advance. We should not dismiss her concerns about the rules governing her sport.

In a 2025 New York Times/Ipsos poll, 79% of adults (including 67% of Democrats) said transgender-identifying athletes should compete on teams matching their birth sex. That is a perspective worth taking seriously.

On June 30, 2026, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld the challenged sports restrictions in West Virginia and Idaho under Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause. The court noted that 27 states had enacted laws maintaining female sports categories based on biological sex.

Laws cannot do all the work. How we treat one another in our schools and communities matters just as much. Clear eligibility rules should go hand in hand with efforts to ensure that everyone has opportunities to participate, including through co-ed or open competition where feasible.

My faith calls me to speak truth and practice love. I can support laws protecting girls’ sports while listening to families facing difficult questions. Neither requires surrendering my convictions.

I want the next generation of girls to have the opportunities my daughters had. I also want them to see adults who can defend what is right without being cruel.

Women must be confident enough to defend women’s dignity while extending respect to every person struggling with questions of gender. We can have both fairness and kindness. We should expect both of ourselves.

Kim Miller is the founder and president of America’s Women and America’s Women of Action.