Fresh from a Supreme Court victory affirming laws that restrict transgender sports participation in 27 mostly red states, Alliance Defending Freedom has a warning for 23 blue states that protect trans rights: “You’re next.”
ADF helped write trans sports bills and has defended them in courts after they were passed and drew lawsuits in Idaho and West Virginia. ADF now claims 20 Supreme Court victories, five of them against LGBTQ rights.
ADF is a spinoff from James Dobson’s Focus on the Family empire and focuses on litigating cases of concern to evangelical Christians, particularly against LGBTQ inclusion and favoring a definition of religious liberty that addresses the fears of evangelicals.
Despite its recent victories, there’s no rest for culture warriors, who sense culture is finally moving their way.
Kristen Waggoner
“Women’s sports win 2-0 at SCOTUS!” posted ADF’s Kristen Waggoner on X. “Blue states with boys on girls’ podiums … you’re next.”
While the number of transgender male-to-female athletes competing in any sport is miniscule, this has become the latest obsession of evangelicals and the MAGA political base.
“You can expect that we will uproot gender ideology from the law, and we will not stop until we do,” Waggoner told Fox News. “It harms women and girls, it harms children, it harms parental rights. We have several lawsuits that are already ongoing in those 23 states, and we will continue to work to protect women and girls.”
Despite Waggoner’s outcry, there is no evidence of trans athletes doing actual harm to anyone. LGBTQ and trans rights groups contend such claims are based on misguided fears about gender dysphoria.
Some blue state leaders say the court’s decision won’t change anything. While the court affirmed the laws banning trans sports in the states that have such laws, it did not mandate such bills in states that don’t have them.
“The Supreme Court has allowed states to be as cruel as they want to be to transgender people,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz told the Washington Post. “They’ve also allowed states like Minnesota to be as kind and welcoming as they can.”
Graphic from Alliance Defending Freedom
There are numerous court cases on trans issues in the courts, including a case from Washington state where ADF is defending a female high school wrestler who claims she was “sexually assaulted” by a trans wrestling opponent.
Support for trans rights is declining, and Pew Research Center says two-thirds of Americans support laws that require trans athletes to compete on teams that match their sex assigned at birth. A majority (56%) also support laws that ban health care professionals from providing care related to gender transitions for minors.
“Compared with 2022, Americans have become more supportive of laws that limit protections for trans people — and less supportive of laws aimed at safeguarding them,” reports Pew.
Some say liberal groups underestimated public sentiment against trans rights, pursued “sweeping civil rights rulings” that lacked popular support, and used tactics that “backfired disastrously” and have fueled heightened opposition.
So far in 2026, more than 800 anti-trans bills have been proposed in 43 states, with 65 passed and 267 still active, reported the Trans Legislation Tracker. Also, 126 state anti-trans bills passed in 2025, a record number.
Earlier this month, Missouri enacted a new law that “ensures taxpayer dollars are not paying for dangerous gender-transition services for inmates in state prisons.” And in November, voters in Arizona, Colorado and Washington state will see trans issues on state ballots.
Congress also is considering federal trans laws.
Republicans have proposed the “Chloe Cole Act of 2026,” named after an activist who underwent transgender treatment and then detransitioned. She has testified against trans rights in numerous states, would “provide a private right of action for children and the parents of children whose healthy body parts have been damaged by medical professionals practicing or participating in certain interventions.”
The number of transgender Americans who have “detransitioned” is small but their examples are cited frequently by evangelicals and anti-trans groups.
The Chloe Cole Act, HR-7651, has nearly 90 cosponsors.
Meanwhile, Democrats have proposed the “Transgender Bill of Rights” to “protect and codify the rights of transgender and nonbinary people under the law and ensure their access to medical care, shelter, safety, and economic security.” That bill protecting America’s 1.6 million transgender adults, HR-1058, has 107 cosponsors.
As BNG reported in 2023, ADF helped write bills restricting gender medical care and trans sports participation that were promoted in states by Family Policy Alliance. Both ADF and FPA were founded by James Dobson to turn his family values into the law of the land.
Trans rights remain a potent issue for voters. In 2024, Republicans spent $65 million on election ads opposing the “radical trans agenda.”
Related:
These Olympic boxers are not transgender but their experience illustrates transphobia | Analysis by Cynthia Vacca Davis
Here’s a better way to talk about Lia Thomas and transgender athletes | Analysis by Rick Pidcock
Republicans seek votes with ad campaign warning of ‘radical trans agenda’