Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Sunday he has sued the NCAA over its policy allowing male-born athletes who identify as female in women’s sports, saying the organization is engaging in deceptive advertising.
The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Lubbock County District Court accuses the NCAA of misleading collegiate sports-watchers by billing games as “women’s sports” that are in fact “mixed sex sporting events where men can compete against women.”
“The NCAA is engaging in false, misleading, and deceptive practices by advertising using similar logos and branding for its ‘women’s’ sporting events restricted solely to women and ‘women’s’ sporting events open to both men and women — a practice designed to confuse consumers,” said the 57-page complaint.
The attorney general’s office asked the court to issue a temporary injunction preventing the NCAA from allowing biological males to participate in women’s sports events in Texas, or to require the association to stop using the term “women” to advertise sporting events.
“Consumers do not purchase goods and services associated with women’s sporting events to watch men steal medals and records from female participants,” the lawsuit said. “When consumers have purchased goods and services associated with women’s sporting events only to discover a man competing, they have invariably reacted with revulsion and outrage.”
The unique legal argument comes amid rising concern over male-born athletes participating in collegiate sports, an issue that resurfaced this year in NCAA Division I women’s volleyball.
Last month, 11 female athletes and a coach sued the Mountain West Conference, part of the NCAA, over its Transgender Participation Policy, which allowed San Jose State redshirt senior Blaire Fleming to play on the women’s volleyball team despite being a biological male.
A federal judge sided with the conference, allowing Fleming to continue playing on the team. The Spartans placed second in the Mountain West women’s volleyball championship.
Mr. Paxton said that the NCAA has violated the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act by allowing male-born players to compete in women’s sports and then failing to disclose “which participants in its ‘women’s’ competitions are biological males.”
“The NCAA is intentionally and knowingly jeopardizing the safety and wellbeing of women by deceptively changing women’s competitions into co-ed competitions,” said the Republican. “When people watch a women’s volleyball game, for example, they expect to see women playing against other women — not biological males pretending to be something they are not.”
This isn’t the first time the NCAA has been sued over the transgender-athlete issue.
In March, more than a dozen current and former female collegiate athletes sued the NCAA for permitting Lia Thomas, a male-born swimmer, to compete in women’s Division I swimming based on gender identity. Thomas won an NCAA women’s swimming title in 2022.
NCAA President Charlie Baker has said the association is reviewing the issue. In 2022, the organization said it would defer to the national governing bodies of individual sports on transgender eligibility rules.
At a Senate hearing last week, Mr. Baker said that there were fewer than 10 male-born athletes currently competing in NCAA women’s sports, a disclosure that failed to assuage criticism from Republicans.
“Why don’t you go onto Amazon and buy a spine online and take a stand?” asked Sen. John Kennedy, Louisiana Republican.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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