Grand Canyon Times

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) is receiving criticism for her decision to not defend a state law prohibiting boys from participating in girls’ sports.

“The decision by the Arizona Attorney General to sacrifice young women seeking to excel in sports upon the altar of gender dysphoria is highly disconcerting,” former Congressman Lt. Col. Allen West (ret.), executive director of the American Constitutional Rights Union (ACRU), told the Grand Canyon Times. “The left desires to erase women from our society. Biological males wishing to compete against females is not heroic, it is cowardice personified. And those supporting this absurdity are utterly deranged and in violation of the constitutional rights of Women in America."

In March 2022, then-Gov. Doug Ducey (R-Ariz.) signed into law Senate Bill 1165, which prohibits biological males from competing in girls’ sports at the K-12 and collegiate levels. That law is now being challenged by a lawsuit filed on April 18 in the U.S. District Court in Tucson. 

Mayes announced last week she would not defend Senate Bill 1165 in that lawsuit. The Grand Canyon Times reported on April 27 that Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne would hire his own legal team to defend the law.

"You ask if I'm gonna hire my own legal team," Horne told the Grand Canyon Times. "The answer is yes." 

Horne said he has not discussed the case with Mayes nor did he wish to express an opinion on her decision not to defend the law.

"But I can talk about the reason I am defending the lawsuit," Horne said. "There have been a lot of news stories about girls who take their sports very seriously. They work very hard and they want to excel. Some of them hope they can get college scholarships for excelling in their sports and they how devastated they are when they find out they can't excel because they have to compete against biological boys who have greater muscle mass and greater bone structure."

The Grand Canyon Times reported earlier this month that Arizona is one of 21 states to ban boys from playing girls’ high school sports. 

As of publication time, there are 29 states that still allow boys to participate in girls’ high school sports: Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.      

On April 20, the U.S. of Representatives passed a bill, H.R. 734, to prohibit boys from participating in girls' school sports. The legislation passed on a party-line vote of 219-203. The Grand Canyon Times reported on April 22 that every one of Arizona’s Democrat U.S. reps voted against the bill, while all Republican reps voted for it. 

That legislation now awaits a vote in the U.S. Senate, where U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) introduced a companion bill. The White House issued a statement saying President Joe Biden will veto the bill, if passed by the U.S. Senate.  

"It can no longer be debated, the real war on women is being waged by the progressive socialist left,” said West. “The recent vote in the US House of Representatives that saw all 203 Democrats vote against protecting women's sports is evidence. Joe Biden's pledge to veto any bill that protects women's sports is further proof.” 

West previously represented Florida’s 22nd Congressional District from 2011 to 2013. He served in the U.S. Army for 22 years, during which time he received a Bronze Star, three Meritorious Service Medals, three Army Commendation Medals, one with valor device, and a Valorous Unit Award.