Colorado Voters Can Help Keep Girls’ Sports for Girls
Colorado voters will consider a proposal this November to reserve female school and college sports teams for female athletes. Proposition 134 would require teams to be designated as male, female, or coeducational and exclude male students from teams designated for females.
The measure gives voters an opportunity to defend the purpose of girls' sports. Female athletes deserve a category that recognizes their sex and preserves the opportunities schools have created for them. A girl's place on her team should not depend on adults abandoning that commitment.
A Girls’ Team Should Have a Clear Meaning
The proposed law covers school athletic programs from elementary and secondary education through accredited colleges. Its team designations would apply to interscholastic and intramural sports.
Those categories help a student understand the competition she is entering. A girl who spends months practicing should be able to trust that a female event will remain a female event. Schools should give coaches and families the same assurance before a season begins. Clear eligibility rules allow the athletes themselves to concentrate on their sport.
Opportunities for Girls Need Protection
A roster has a limited number of places. Competitive meets also offer a limited number of advancing positions and awards. The decisions adults make about eligibility determine who has access to those opportunities.
Female athletes should be able to compete for them within a category created for females. Treating girls' concerns as unreasonable places the burden on students who simply want their competition to retain its meaning. School leaders should be willing to defend those students' interests openly.
The Proposal Defines the Available Categories
Proposition 134 would retain coeducational teams and allow a female student to participate on a male team when her school offers no corresponding female team. If approved, the measure would take effect January 1, 2027.
Schools can provide routes to participation while maintaining female competition. The responsibility belongs to the adults who organize the programs. They should establish understandable categories rather than leave a girl to challenge an eligibility decision after it has already affected her season.
Missouri Should Preserve Its Own Commitment
Missouri already has a statute protecting sex-based school athletic competition, with an exception for girls where no corresponding female competition is available. That statute is scheduled to expire August 28, 2027.
Colorado's ballot debate offers Missouri families a reason to look ahead. Our lawmakers should preserve protections that give female athletes a dependable place to compete. Her Health Her Future supports girls whose effort deserves recognition within female sports. Their opportunity should remain a lasting responsibility of the schools and officials who oversee those programs.
Link to story: Colorado Legislature: Proposition 134 status
Link to story: Proposition 134 text
Link to story: Missouri’s school athletics statute, Section 163.048
