"Selina Soule (pictured above in high school) runs track at Florida Atlantic University, and the bottom line of why she is trying to become involved in this lawsuit is that girls deserve the opportunity to compete on a level playing field," Soule's attorney, Jonathan Scruggs of Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), begins. "Allowing males to compete in girls' sports just destroys fair competition and women's athletic opportunities."
The Fairness in Women's Sports Act aims to keep sports separated, with biological men competing against biological men and biological females competing against biological females. Various groups have filed a lawsuit challenging the law, saying men who identify as women should be able to participate in women's sports.
"Selina, realizing that her sport is at risk, jumped in and is asking the court to jump into this lawsuit and defend this law, because her opportunities [and] her freedoms are at stake," Scruggs asserts.
Soule and other biological female athletes are fighting a policy in Connecticut that allows men to compete in female sports. ADF is also representing Soule in that case.
"That is on appeal, but that just highlights that she is not a stranger to what it means to lose opportunities to male athletes," says Scruggs. "She has run in actual track competitions and lost the opportunity to win medals and other opportunities to men, so that's why … she thought she'd have the opportunity available to her when she went to Florida to go to college. But now she's facing the same type of risks in the state of Florida that she encountered in Connecticut."
Scruggs expects to hear back on the motion to intervene within the next month or two.
"Our message is simple: This law that Florida passed, it protects the integrity of women's sports. And if we ignore biological reality, the bottom line is girls and women get hurt, and they lose out on opportunities," Scruggs concludes.
So ADF hopes the court will recognize these facts and allow them to intervene and defend and ultimately uphold the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act.
