Date: June 30th, 2026 12:01 PM
Author: CapTTTainFalcon
JUSTICE THOMAS, concurring.
The Court correctly holds that neither Title IX nor the
Equal Protection Clause prohibits States from offering sex-
separated athletics. A man does not have a legal right to
compete against women just because he believes that he is
a woman. I join the Court’s opinion in full. I write sepa-
rately to make two points.
First, transgender status is not a suspect class requiring
heightened equal-protection scrutiny. United States v.
Skrmetti, 605 U. S. 495, 547–557 (2025) (BARRETT, J., con-
curring). The class of people who claim transgender status
could more accurately be described as people who are expe-
riencing “gender dysphoria,” which is not a “discrete group.”
Id., at 550–551 (internal quotation marks omitted); see also
id., at 566–567 (ALITO, J., concurring and concurring in
judgment). Because “gender dysphoria” is a mutable men-
tal state that is the object of psychiatric treatment, it does
not resemble the immutable characteristics on the basis of
which our precedents have applied heightened scrutiny—
race, sex, or national origin. Instead, gender dysphoria re-
sembles other characteristics on the basis of which legisla-
tures may classify with a merely rational basis. See, e.g.,
Heller v. Doe, 509 U. S. 312, 321 (1993) (mental illness);
Plyler v. Doe, 457 U. S. 202, 220 (1982) (immigration sta-
tus). Legislatures have many obvious rational bases to
keep men who believe that they are women out of teams
and private spaces reserved for women.
Second, as the Court recognizes, this case concerns “bio-
logical men” and “boys who identify as girls.” Ante, at 10,
27. Men and boys with gender dysphoria are not women or
girls, even if they believe that they are. Sex is an immuta-
ble “biological” characteristic, see ante, at 10; it is binary;
and “man” and “woman,” “boy” and “girl,” are the terms that
correspond to adults and children of each sex. See A. Byrne,
Are Women Adult Human Females? 177 Philosophical
Studies 3783, 3786–3787 (2020). To use language to ob-
scure reality—to show “indifference regarding the truth”—
is to lie to the public and cease to treat our fellow citizens
“as equal[s].” J. Pieper, Abuse of Language—Abuse of
Power 17, 21 (1992).
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5878570&forum_id=2betting#49971205)