By Suzanne Bowdey

It may feel like the country is finally embracing sanity on girls’ sports, but not everyone has boarded the bipartisan bandwagon. While Americans of all political stripes loathe the idea of biological boys competing against their daughters, there are still some powerful holdouts making life absolutely miserable for the brave voices demanding justice. And on both coasts, they’re paying a steep price for it.

Across California and Maine, the winds of change that blew in with Donald Trump are facing stiff resistance in the form of far-left local and state leaders. At a Wednesday school board meeting in Lucia Mar, a brave 17-year-old was interrupted by the board president as she was telling the emotional story of changing in front of a boy at track practice. In the locker room, she saw a biological boy “watching — not only myself — but the other young women undress.” Celeste Diest paused as the tears started to fall. “This experience,” she said, her voice quivering, “was beyond traumatizing.”

Since the boy was already changed and ready to go to practice, she pointed out, there was “absolutely no reason for him to be in any locker room — let alone the women’s.” Then, still struggling to compose herself, Celeste turned to Board President Colleen Martin and said, “Adults like yourself made me and my peers feel like our own comfort was invalid, even though our privacy was and still is, being completely violated. The individual who identifies as female has XY chromosomes. Biologically, this makes him a male because females have XX chromosomes. This is basic biology.”

To everyone’s surprise, Martin leaned into the microphone and told the teenager, who was still crying, “Wrap it up.” Even though Celeste had only been speaking for 68 seconds (others took much longer), the board president saw fit to shut down the personal story of a teenager who’s been mentally and physically affected by the district’s unpopular policy. But the rude treatment of Celeste only made her next few sentences that much more impactful. “I just want to ask: What about us? We can all sit around and allow our rights to be given up to cater to an individual — that is, a man who watches women undress in a stripping away [of] female opportunity that once was fought for us. Sadly, we have to try and regain our rights again. I hope you put effort into the restoration of our school safety. Thank you for serving our community.”

The room burst into raucous applause — so sustained that Martin started banging her gavel, sternly shouting “NO!” into the microphone. “We’re not doing that,” she yelled, as the crowd cheered for a full 30 seconds.

Four hours south and a day later, conservatives on the board of California’s Chino Hills Unified School District reported that protestors broke out into Satanic chants and profanity during testimony over the area’s sports policy. “What we witnessed was deeply unsettling,” Christina Salazar told reporters when her daughter’s speech was interrupted. “Adults [were] behaving in a sadistic and hateful way, all in the name of equality. There was even a teacher from my daughter’s school who was interrupting the meeting yelling ‘Hail Satan’ as he walked out and flipped everyone off.”

Despite the uproar, Sonja Shaw, an outspoken Christian and board president, refused to blink. “These are the people who want your kids,” she warned on X. “They can scream all they want, but we’ll never surrender our parental rights or compromise our daughters’ safety! Heck no!”

Shaw, who admitted she’d gotten yet another death threat, told The Washington Stand that she would do whatever it takes to shield the daughters of her community. “This is spiritual warfare,” she insisted, “and the enemy is desperately trying to destroy everything we hold dear. They are not just attacking policies; they are attacking our children and families,” she warned TWS. “But I will not back down. I am covered by the blood of Jesus, and I will fight this battle every single day. My brothers and sisters in Christ, this is a call to action. We cannot stand by as the enemy seeks to destroy the lives of innocent children. The enemy seeks to tear apart our schools, our families, and our children. We must not only pray but also stand boldly in truth.”

Five years ago, Sonja explained, “I started to pray and asked God to reveal and expose the wickedness that is infiltrating our schools and our society, and I continue to ask Him to remove this evil. God’s truth will always prevail,” she underscored, “and His light will shine brighter than any darkness the enemy tries to bring. Armor up as we fight the good fight because we were made for a time such as this.”

More than 3,000 miles away, Maine Rep. Laurel Libby (R) has been slapped with a formal censure from Democratic leaders for insisting on her Facebook account that it’s wrong to let boys rob girls of local championships. She was told the only way to win back her right to vote or speak on the floor was to apologize. Libby refused, deciding to sue instead.

Late Friday, a U.S. district judge, Melissa DuBose, upheld the Democrats’ outrageous punishment for the time being. “While I’m disappointed by today’s decision,” Libby admitted, “it doesn’t change the fact that [House Speaker] Ryan Fecteau and Maine Democrats abused their power in order to silence dissent, disenfranchise nearly 9,000 of my constituents, and suppress the voices they disagree with,” she said in a statement. “The legislature is not above the law, and certainly not above the Constitution.”

Despite the setback, Libby told Fox News, “I’m not going to apologize for speaking the truth.” Not to mention, she continued, “Two-thirds of Mainers don’t want to see biological males in girls’ sports. … [But] until I have recourse from the courts, I will be unable to speak or vote for the rest of my term, which lasts until 2027.”

In the meantime, the Trump administration is doing everything it can to hold Libby’s state accountable for spurning Title IX. The drama between Democratic Governor Janet Mills and President Donald Trump is also on its way to court, where Attorney General Pam Bondi swore to put an end to the erasure of girls in competition. “What they have been through is horrific,” she argued of the female athletes in Maine. Flanked by Libby and other victims of these dangerous trans policies, Bondi called it “unfortunate” that the legal battle is even necessary.

“We are going to continue to fight for women,” the AG declared at the Wednesday press conference. “Maine’s leadership has refused to comply at every turn, so we have no other choice. We are taking them to court.”

One of the most famous faces in the war for women, All-American swimmer Riley Gaines, echoed Bondi’s lament that Democratic leaders are trampling — not just the law and the president’s executive orders — but the 80% of Americans who reject Maine and California’s agenda as an attack on their daughters. “What Governor Mills and Democratic governors across the country are doing is deeply regressive and utterly misogynistic,” Gaines emphasized.

To a reporter’s suggestion that it’s just “a couple” of biological boys stealing girls’ podiums in Maine (and therefore not a real issue), Bondi fired back, “I don’t care if it’s one, I don’t care if it’s two, I don’t care if it’s 100 — it’s going to stop, and it’s going to stop in every single state.”

Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.