I’ll never forget the first day of track practice my senior year. It was the spring of 2021 at Hempfield High School, my senior year in Hempfield Township, when this happened, as I took the familiar walk from our high school track to the locker room, the same path we had taken every single day. I was the girls’ team captain. It was supposed to be a season of leadership, hard work, and one last chance to compete with the teammates I had grown up alongside.

But when we opened the locker room door, something was different. Sitting on the bench was a boy we all recognized, a runner from the boys’ cross country team just months earlier.

No one had told us. Not our coaches. Not our principal. 

At first, many of us stayed quiet. Surely, we thought, if this were really happening, someone would have prepared us. But as the days passed, it became clear that the adults had made a decision about our team, our privacy, and our competition, and we were expected to simply accept it.

When I approached my coaches, I was told they weren’t allowed to talk about it with me. When I went to the school administrators, I was shut down. Our concerns about fairness and privacy were dismissed, as if they were irrelevant. It was one of the most demoralizing experiences of my life. I then approached my School Board at Hempfield School District, and thankfully, many of the adults there listened to the girls’ concerns. I began attending school board meetings. Other girls joined me. That board passed a Girls’ Sports Policy that protected women and girls at Hempfield. 

But many other girls across our state and nation have not been so lucky as to have the adults in charge pass laws that will protect them. As recently reported by OutKick, a male wrestler competing in the girls’ division has been accused of sexually assaulting a female opponent. This is a sobering example of what can happen when adults ignore obvious biological differences and fail to protect the girls in their care.

This is not just about the elite athletes or those winning championship titles. The presence of a male competitor has a huge effect on morale. It affected team unity. It affected the confidence of girls who had trained for years, believing that “girls’ sports” meant something real. 

The truth is, this is not a fringe issue, and it continues to happen all over the country, and within Pennsylvania. Polling consistently shows that roughly 80 percent of Americans across party lines agree that males should not compete in female sports. You do not reach that kind of consensus in this country without broad, bipartisan common sense. Yet many elected leaders continue to ignore it.

That is why I am proud to work with Voices of Americans, a Pennsylvania nonprofit committed to ensuring that everyday citizens are heard. Their mission is simple: amplify the voices of Americans whose concerns have been dismissed and remind elected officials that they serve the people, not ideology.

This issue is about more than sports. It is about truth. No matter what a boy does to his body, he will never be a girl. Saying that is not hate. It is love, because love tells the truth.

Our culture increasingly teaches that affirming someone’s self-perception, even when it contradicts biological reality, is the highest form of compassion. But compassion does not require us to deny reality. It does not require us to sacrifice fairness for women and girls. And it certainly does not require us to tell a child that he can become something he is not.

When we tell a boy that he can become a girl, we are not just impacting female athletes. We are harming him, too.

Children deserve honesty. They deserve adults who are willing to anchor them in reality, not reinforce confusion. Actions never happen in a vacuum. What we normalize shapes belief. What we affirm shapes identity. When we tell children that biology is optional, we place a burden on them that no kid should carry.

I know what it feels like when adults refuse to speak up. I know what it feels like to realize that the people you trusted to protect you are unwilling to say what is obviously true. That is why I decided to speak up.

With the help of the Pennsylvania Family Council, we worked on state legislation that protects female sports and locker rooms. Lawmakers across Pennsylvania have introduced legislation like the Women’s Sports Act because they understand what is at stake.

This should not be controversial. Girls deserve fair competition. Girls deserve privacy. Girls deserve adult leaders who will defend them. And children struggling with identity deserve truth, not comforting falsehoods.

Truth and love belong together. Real love tells the truth even when it is uncomfortable. Real love protects the vulnerable even when it is unpopular. 

Organizations like Voices of Americans are encouraging citizens to contact their legislators and remind them that fairness in women’s sports is not extreme — it is common sense.

I did not ask to become a public voice on this issue. I simply wanted to finish my senior season as track captain. But when ideology entered our locker room, silence was no longer an option.

If we fail to speak now, the next generation of girls will inherit a world where fairness is negotiable, and truth is considered cruelty. They deserve better. And so do the boys who are being told they can change their sex.

No matter what a boy does to his body, he will never be a girl. Saying that is not hate. It is love.

Lilyana Williams is a former high school track and field captain from Hempfield School District in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. She began speaking out after her firsthand experience with a male competing in girls’ sports. She is an advocate for fairness, privacy, and truth in women’s athletics.