Rick Green

Welcome to the Intersection of Faith and the Culture. It's WallBuilders. We're taking on hot topics and we're taking them on from a particular perspective. We always look at them from a biblical, historical and constitutional perspective. Hope you appreciate that. You know, if you're a biblical citizen, if you consider yourself to be a person of faith, a Christian that has truly surrendered all, that means everything in your life. The Bible speaks to it and it's all surrendered to Him, and so we want to always ask that question on any issue, what's the Bible say about it? How do I look at this from a biblical perspective? And that includes the issues of the day that our politicians are talking about, that our legislatures are debating, or our school boards, or even our own families as we talk about what's happening in the world today. So biblical perspective, historical, always helps, because then you can see what works, what doesn't work. How can we learn from past civilizations, even, or certainly past generations in our civilization? And then, of course, constitutional, because we live in America under the United States Constitution, or at least we're supposed to be. A lot of that being ignored right now, of course, and we want to restore that. So thanks for being a part of it here with us at WallBuilders.

I'm Rick Green here with David and Tim Barton. Tim Barton's a national speaker and pastor and president of WallBuilders. David's, America's premier historian. We're thankful you're listening and I hope you go to our website, wallbuilders.com and learn how you can be the catalyst in your community for a restoration of biblical values and constitutional principles. All right, guys, a little later we've got a state rep back with us. Actually, she was with us before, way back when all this crazy guys and girls sports stuff started happening, and she's a state rep up in Idaho and she passed legislation early on one of the first ones to do that, and so when we had her on, man.

I think that was like four years ago. This was really just becoming a topic and I'm going to get her back. Talk about this Title IX thing. They had a great tour with some big names, so this has become really a linchpin issue now, even in the elections. And shocking to me how many people are actually willing to, with a straight face champion, the idea of guys taking over girls' sports and act like they're the good people, they're the ones standing for right. It's just like we're in some weird Orwellian novel or something.

David Barton

Well, she was, Rick. As you mentioned, she was the first in the nation to pass a law protecting Title IX federal Title IX, which says, hey, we're not going to allow biological males to compete in women's sports. And she did that, being a division one basketball coach. And I've known her for a number of years, since she got started in this thing back in the beginning, and we've talked about her political races and things she's doing, and I had never thought about asking her where she coached or what she did. So once I saw that she was going to be the guest, I went online and looked up to see what her D1 women's basketball coaching was all about, because she's trying to protect women's sports.

I was blown away with what she so she was the coach at California State at Fullerton. She was the coach at the University of California in Santa Barbara. She was the basketball coach at Brigham Young University and at Washington State University. So those are some pretty notable colleges, famous colleges with. Really. They have long-term programs there and I had no idea that she was part of coaching those teams. So she really does have a background from which to address this, and what's happening now is, with all all this change, we're seeing yet even another state pass this, and I think that makes what half the states now that have put this in place. Now, the bad part is, I think it's only Republican states that have done it so clearly. Democrats are not into how many genders are protecting them, but I think it's now 25 states. She's got this in, yeah.

Tim Barton

And I think it is only Republican states. And this is something that's mind boggling to consider, because when you talk about a transgender individual playing in a sport right, someone that is a biological male competing in women's sports, it's not just competing on the field of play, on the court of play, it's not like somebody's just playing volleyball or basketball or just running track At the schools where they make that team. The majority of these schools, that biological male is going into the girls' locker room, is going into the girls' bathroom, is going into the girls' shower. So it's one thing. If you looked and said, hey, right, if they just want to play this sport, what's the big deal? Now, that would still be wrong. It's still kind of crazy that you would think and feel that way, but that would be one thing. However, once you realize we're not just talking about having an athletic advantage, a physical advantage on the court or on the field of play, when we're talking about undressing in front of the other gender and this is guys my number one thought and wonderment always is in the midst of this when are the dads of these girls in all of these other schools that as much as I would love for my girls to play sports. If I have one of these scenarios where some boy walks into their locker room, first of all I'm walking in right after that boy and then my girls. If the school says, no, it's fine, my girls aren't going to be on that team anymore.

And yet we have not seen the uproar from the fathers, We've not seen the rising up of the dads in this movement. And dad, back to your point. It's only been in conservative, republican states that we've even seen an effort for the state legislators to protect girls Again, not just on the court. That would be bad enough. That's one thing. It's a totally different dynamic when you're talking about undressing and putting boys and girls together in showers and locker rooms, et cetera. So the fact that's only happened in Republican states is crazy.

And yet before this was even as big of a deal as it is now. This is where Barbara Ehardt was at the forefront of leading this, seeing where it was going, seeing that this is going to be a problem, and so she was able to take steps before anybody else in the nation. We were able to work with her through our pro-family legislative network, who she's been a champion for so many years on a lot of issues, but certainly this is one of her signature issues and because of the Biden administration, the Biden presidency and Title IX, there have been a lot of challenges, even, and maybe especially, over the last couple of years. All right, quick break.

Rick Green

We'll be right back. Representative Barbara Ehardt, our special guest, stay with us. You're listening to the WallBuilder Show.

Break

Rick Green

Great to have Barbara Ehardt back with us. It's been a little while, but great to have you on and I appreciate the good work you're doing. By the way, you came on the program four years ago already, leading the way to make sure that we protect ladies' sports and don't have guys going and competing in ladies' sports. And here we are now. It's a huge national issue, but you were leading the way on this early on.

Rep. Barbara Ehardt

Hey, thank you so very much. I love being on your program. I appreciate everything that you guys do and, yes, this has been an amazing journey. I've been able to testify in most of the states that have brought this legislation forward. I've helped legislators bring it and I'll tell you, with what just happened in New Hampshire, in four years we now have half of our states who have passed legislation to detect girls and women in sports. It's absolutely amazing.

Rick Green

Well, it's been actually cool to watch people rally and get involved. You know it's crazy that we would have to on an issue like this. This should have been a common sense issue and you would think that any sane group would have stood up against this from the beginning. But you've been derided and called everything in the book and there's been a lot of opposition to just still believing in biology and believing that boys and girls are different. And so to weather that storm. God bless you. And now to see that many states come on board is fantastic. What is that looking like on the ground? I remember when we talked a few years ago, one part of the concern was OK, what's the NCAA going to do? What are these different associations going to do? And so what has that been like? Have they started to come around or are they all kind of digging in still?

Rep. Barbara Ehardt

And of course, they're being pressured by the ACLU and all the LGBT various organizations who don't want to see the changes. They were the ones who, under the cloak of darkness, brought about the changes anyway back in 2012, unbeknownst to anyone. But you know, we kind sending Idaho legislation that I had passed four years ago in conjunction with West Virginia, finally just went to the Supreme Court. We just appealed it. I mean, it's been a long journey and so we hope. We hope the Supreme Court will take this up, but we are winning in the court of public opinion and I actually believe we are now winning in the courts. In the court of public opinion, where I knew this would also have to be taken, we're polling like 75 to 80% of the people support our legislation. They don't want boys and men taking the spots of their daughters and nieces and granddaughters and all of that and so. But three things, real quickly, rick, I see are taking place right now, and just so people don't get confused. One is we have legislation, the legislation that's sweeping through on 25 of the 50 states. Also in others it just didn't pass, so we're fighting it with legislation. Then, two, we have some real courageous governors and I think you're going to see something from Idaho soon, but real courageous governors stepping up and saying, hey, I don't care what the federal government does, we are going to have you obey our laws. Sarah Huckabee, sanders, Landa Sanchez, governor Abbott so many have stepped up and said we will follow our laws. So that's another way that it's being fought.

And then we have all of these states who have joined together. Idaho was the first. Idaho is, with Wyoming, Montana, Mississippi and Louisiana, where the first injunction came out against the Biden administration being able to enforce and enact their laws, and so we've had two more and we expect a couple more to come forward. I believe all 25 states that have Republican governors will be protected with an injunction that has been filed, and various states joining in with various ones. So right now, I believe we're winning in many of the places, but as far as the NCAA, no, they decided to be stubborn and they're going to fight this every step of the. They decided to be stubborn and they're going to, uh, fight this every step of the way.

In the end, they're going to lose yes even if, even if, even if they're going to lose because the naia stepped up naia, this past year, stepped up and and voted unanimously to say we will not allow biological males to take the place of our women 

Rick Green

and, and that just for the uninformed like me.

I always can't remember which of these groups is which. NAIA is kind of the smaller schools in the country, basically, would that be the right way to describe that?

Rep. Barbara Ehardt

Yep, yep, smaller schools. They operate by a different set of governing standards, but those governing standards are really set to make it possible to operate at the most efficient level. You know, obviously they don't have the same amount of money coming in. But in Idaho, here we of course have, for example, Lewis and Clark. Their president is on the board and kudos to her. She voted to say no to boys and men in women's sports. Love it 

Rep. Barbara Ehardt

and I did. I just looked it up. It's 250 colleges around the country and so a lot, a lot, of, a lot of uh, a lot of athletic programs, a lot of a lot of girls that are covered, um, specifically by that group. So great that they have uh gotten back on board with uh sanity. But, like you said, NCAA, if they're you know, let them. I mean, they're digging in but they're going, they're going to lose in the end. This is absolutely a winning, winning issue for Common Sense. I got to ask you on a personal level how weird it is. Or did you ever imagine that your face would be on the side of a bus with Martina Navratrola, with Jennifer Say from Levi's, from Riley Gaines, I mean all? of these, 

Rep. Barbara Ehardt

my good friend I know. Oh man, I'll tell you what. When they first started talking about it, I didn't quite understand. And then I certainly didn't understand that they were being gracious enough and they put my face up. When I saw it, my first thought was, well, we could choose a better picture. But my second thought was this is so cool.

Rick Green

I think it's awesome, I think it's so cool. So it's the Take Back Title IX Tour.

Rep. Barbara Ehardt

Yes.

Rick Green

And it just shows the momentum it really does. And you know different groups I mean like I mean most people. I guess maybe my age and older remembers Navaterola as being just the you know champion tennis player and then coming out, you know, as a lesbian, and so typically it was the liberals that embraced her and that you know she was typically, you know, in that crowd. I guess this was too much for her. She said absolutely this is wrong, and we've seen that from some of the you know various acronym communities that this finally crossed the line for them. So you know that's good. And then I think there's also even some moderates and Democrats that have said you know, enough is enough. And so the momentum does grow. But I am shocked at how many, even in Congress, how many Democrats continue to vote against sanity here.

Rep. Barbara Ehardt

I know 

Rick Green

and actually, are teaming up with and taking a stand on the idea that guys should be able to come over into a girl's locker room or into a and play in sports. I, I'm really I did not expect that. I mean I I I just I would have thought they would know that's going to hurt them in the long run and typically politicians do what's best for them, right? Yeah, I mean, that's just typically what happens.

There aren't a lot of patriots out there like you that say, hey, I'm going to do what's right for the next generation and and. So I don't know if you face much of that still in the Idaho legislature. I'm not asking you to name names or anything, but has that surprised you that the Democrats have been willing to gamble so much on this issue?

Rep. Barbara Ehardt

A couple of things on that. First, absolutely it surprised me because these Democrats in Congress have kids and they have daughters and unfortunately they are sacrificing their daughters at the altar of woke, a woke agenda that has nothing but harm, in my opinion, in the future, for not just girls and women, for families, for the redefinition of families, et cetera, et cetera. But let me tell you something quite interesting when I first bought this legislation, before I actually had presented, I was just talking to a couple of my Democrat colleagues and they were all in with me. One of them had been a national championship Olympic skier. She had a fall, became paralyzed, so she was a national paralegics skier. They were all in until the ACLU. No, no, can't do that because on the ACLU chart of victim hierarchies, the biggest victim would be anyone who they call quote, trans, not a word I choose to use.

But here's something on a real positive front In 2023, you had two states that added they only had K through 12, and they added the college. It was Alabama and Texas over where you guys are, and I got I think I went to Texas four times to testify. And so when Alabama brought this legislation to protect women at the university level, higher ed. Guess what 17 Democrats crossed over to support it and 10, I might have my numbers wrong like 10 or 12 voted present, just didn't vote one way or the other. That's pretty impressive. And then in Texas and again it's been a little bit of time, I might have my numbers wrong, but I believe that we had 10 Democrats crossover. It might have been 12, 10 Democrats crossover to support the legislation for higher ed and had something like seven just vote present. So to me that was huge.

Yeah, I mean, and and what it does is it also helps to give cover. I I always try to bring this stuff up when I'm speaking in other places, because I feel like it's a means of giving cover to other democrats to follow and do the same things. They're not the first, you're not the first, and so what we probably need to do is really reach out, get the names of some of these guys, have a conversation and ask if they'd be willing to, you know, help promote it with their colleagues, because this is not an issue. Well, it should not be a Democrat-Republican issue. You know, on the bus to take that Title IX tour, we had a lot of democrats with it, um, obviously including Martina, uh, but Nancy Hodgshed, who is a three-time Olympic champion, uh, donna dev were democrats and we had an amazing experience together through the course of a month. So we just got to bring more people uh in with us, and we're doing that because courage begets courage that's right, and I'll tell you.

in 2022, when I flew down to the ncaa swimming championships in Atlanta, Georgia, we had a big press conference and then we stood out there and protested and I and I watched Leah Thomas swim and if those gals are coming in and out not knowing all of the complete pressure they'd been put on her and then a young lady named Riley Gains speaks up and I'll tell you what, what a difference that has made to this movement. She has been an incredible voice. She's a she's a friend of mine now, a true friend, and I was just texting with her today and yesterday, but but you know, more people are going to come on that same way. It's exciting.

Rick Green

I, you know, I've watched her just be an Esther for our day such a time as this. No doubt about it. So well spoken, just a sweet spirit about her, but a fighter and just incredible and has awakened so many people and I love getting you know, watching on social media, just all the press conferences, all the bill signings. It's just it's good to see these victories happening. What do you?

Rep. Barbara Ehardt

and she's a woman of faith. 

Rick Green

Yes, yes, strong faith story love hearing her faith story, absolutely. So what's next in terms of where you think this goes and the places for people to pay attention to?

Rep. Barbara Ehardt

Well, certainly we're going to see how these injunctions play out right. And we've got, like I said, a few more states that I cannot imagine that the federal district judges would not do the same that these other judges have done. And let me just share something really, really interesting. That happened also with this, but when the federal district judge and I believe he's out of canvas Judge John W Broom, so on July 3rd he issued his order for Kansas, Utah, Alaska and Wyoming. But with that he did something incredibly unique. See, all of the states that have filed have been Republican states right, there's no protection for any of them in the Democrat states. But he allowed three groups to file with those Female Athletes United. So if you were a mom and you had a daughter that was like in fifth grade, grade in California, you could sign up. Now the time the deadlines passed, it was through July 15th you could sign your daughter up in your school, but she's now going to be protected. Young American Foundation of Moms for Liberty. If you were part of any of those organizations and they got them signed up and they submitted the names, you can be in a democrat state and now you're going to have protection under kids order.

So I think we're going to see these injunctions start to play out, with more people coming on board. Hopefully we'll see a little bit of movement here in the fall in regards to what the Supreme Court will decide to do with my legislation Idaho and in conjunction with West Virginia and then I think we have to continue to fight and encourage our governors. It makes a strong statement. I don't know what you think, but, for example, you know DeSantis and Abbott and Sarah Ockley-Sanders when they stand there at a press conference and they say, hey, in our state, in the state of Arkansas, we will follow all the laws that we have passed. We will not be following anything. Uh, the federal government's, uh, new implement, yeah, implementation, I mean that's

Rick Green

 it's critical, it's absolutely critical.

It's it's one reason. It's one reason I wasn't. I was hoping trump would not name Sarah Huckabee sanders as his vp, because we need these governors that are willing to stand up against the federal government and to do exactly what what they've been doing and and fight it in the courts and all of that, but also take a stand back home. And so what a great example too. She's just killing it in Arkansas. I don't know if I've ever admitted this on the air, but I'm originally from there. I was born in Little Rock and I still have tons of family there and we go there a lot. And what a great job she's done. I mean, she's just been a phenomenal governor, she's just a phenomenal governor.

Rep. Barbara Ehardt

Agreed. We have some governors that are really showing what leadership is, and that's the same reason I didn't want DeSantis to run for president. I mean seriously. I mean I think he really helped lead out so great strong governor and love what they've done and that's what I think. That's where it is now and I think also, but we've forced the other side this is important to know too, as we've been going forward with this we have forced the other side to be reactive, where for years they had been proactive and their movement, their agenda home, had just been flying through, especially since the Obergefell decision, they had just been flying through without any interruption.

And the sports issue in particular. It was the issue that forced them to to stop, to have to deal with it and, because of the sports issue, dealing with this idea of trend and track again their words, but transgender and and bringing that, that conversation, to the forefront. It allowed the other legislation to build on that again now in the locker room and and the gender mutilation and the problem. We can talk about all of that now and I believe with all my heart it was because of the sports legislation.

Rick Green

Amen, amen. Well, keep up the great work, keep the momentum going. We're with you and come back and let us know as things progress. But God bless you for all the work you're doing. Let's get you back soon.

Rep. Barbara Ehardt

Thank you so much and thank you, guys for achieving. We'll talk soon.

Rick Green

Stay with us folks. We'll be right back with David and Tim Barton.

Break

Rick Green

We're back here on The WallBuilders Show. Thanks to Representative Barbara Ehardt for joining us from Idaho and pretty cool guys that she got to do that bus tour and all the celebrities that joined them. And also I just wanted to highlight she's exactly right, Riley Gaines has become an absolute rock star and so cool to see that youthful generation also coming alongside with the right values to fight for these things.

David Barton

Yeah, it really is. I love what she said too, about the fact that we forced the other side to respond. What she's done has forced them to respond to us, and that's always a good thing to do. I mean Proverbs 21, 22 says the wise man attacks the city of the mighty, pulls down their strongholds. So going on offense is a really, really good thing to do. And she's right when she says that we're winning in the court of public opinion. We are. She pointed out 75 to 80 percent support this legislation, what's going, and so that's really really good. And I was really glad to hear that NAIA has also come alongside and said, hey, we're going to protect women's sports. And Rick, you looked at what did you say? 250 colleges and NAIA. So that's good.

Rick Green

Yeah, several hundred, Absolutely yeah,

David Barton

 that's great. So you know, hopefully NCAA will get on board with this and find their brains and sometimes what they used to say you're educated beyond your intelligence, and so they may have too many degrees and they've lost all their common sense, but hopefully they'll get on board as well.

Tim Barton

Well, this is one of the areas, too, where Barbara pointed out that she had Democrats that were siding on a lot of these issues until the ACLU got involved, and even then she mentioned a couple of places where I think Alabama was one of them, and was it Texas or Louisiana. The other one I don't remember now which one she said, although I think it was Texas and I should remember that being here, but there were some Democrats that abstained and there were a couple that crossed over. It was Texas when it came to protecting universities. Nonetheless, because the ACLU is the other side, it's just interesting that there are many politicians that take their marching orders from groups and organizations, not from values and principles, and this is where there is a distinguishing difference. But this is really good news that there are champions out there who are willing to fight for biblical and constitutional values, and Barbara Ehardt is certainly one of those 

Rick Green

All right, folks Wallbuilders.show that's where you can go for archives of the program. If you missed any of the shows over the last few weeks, you can check them out there wallbuilders.show and then, of course, go to wallbuilders.com. Make that one time a monthly contribution. Come alongside us. Let's amplify this voice of truth, let's educate Americans, equip and inspire them, and let's save this constitutional republic. Thanks so much for listening to the WallBuilders Show.