The Line Was Drawn in Georgia
By passing the Riley Gaines Act, Georgia reinforces sex-based rights and draws a clear boundary against erasure.
In the past week, Georgia made headlines for two very different but deeply connected reasons.
First, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta announced it would suspend all new gender-affirming care for minors, citing compliance concerns amid shifting federal and state policy. Days later, Governor Brian Kemp signed the Riley Gaines Act of 2025 into law—making Georgia the 16th state to define “woman” and the 27th to protect women’s sports.
Taken together, these events tell a bigger story. One about how medical institutions, lawmakers, and even well-meaning parents can find themselves on a road paved with good intentions—only to discover it leads to harm.
Clarifying What Should Never Have Been Confused
The Riley Gaines Act does something essential: it restores biological clarity to Georgia law, recognizing that sex—not identity—is the basis for women’s rights. This includes sports, scholarships, and single-sex spaces.
Contrary to claims that this legislation is performative or partisan, it passed with bipartisan support. Democrats like Senators Ed Harbison and Freddie Powell Sims, and Representatives Lynn Heffner, Tangie Herring, and Dexter Sharper, stood alongside their Republican colleagues to say that women are not a subset of identity politics.
They’re right.
Institutions Fold, Lawmakers Lead
Meanwhile, Children’s Healthcare—Georgia’s flagship pediatric system—has quietly walked away from its role in medicalizing gender-distressed kids. Why? Not because of new state legislation. Not because it became illegal. But because, as their spokesperson put it, it was a “system-level decision” driven by federal pressure and legal uncertainty.
For years, this hospital—like many others—insisted it was offering “compassionate care.” But now, with its funding on the line, that care is being paused and patients referred elsewhere. What does that say about the strength of those convictions—or the stability of this model of care?
It also raises the question many have avoided: Were these treatments truly essential if they could be discontinued overnight with a MyChart message?
The Cost of Confusion
When definitions blur, protections disappear.
Parents like the Roswell mother profiled by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution are being told, mid-“treatment”, that the path they thought was compassionate is suddenly unavailable. One week, it’s “life-saving care.” The next, it’s “temporarily discontinued.”
That’s what happens when policies are built on shifting sands.
We can’t keep playing semantics with children’s bodies—or women’s rights. Compassion does not require denial of reality, and no political identity should override biological facts.
Women’s Rights Are Not a Concession
As a coauthor of the WDI USA Black Women’s Caucus Statement on Preserving Sports and Spaces for Women and Girls, I’ve been vocal about this: no individual—no matter how empathetic their intent—has the authority to give away the rights of an entire sex class.
A man who identifies as a woman is still male. And males—regardless of presentation or medication—do not belong in women’s sports, prisons, restrooms, or scholarships.
Allowing this access isn’t inclusion. It’s state-enabled sex discrimination.
For Every Georgia Girl
Payton McNabb never received justice after a traumatic brain injury from a male player on the volleyball court. Across the country, girls’ boundaries are treated like political inconveniences. The Riley Gaines Act responds to that reality. And it does so with moral clarity.
As Governor Kemp said: “Girls should not have to share a playing field, a restroom, or a locker room with boys.” It shouldn’t take political courage to say something that obvious—but in today’s climate, it does.
Let Georgia Be a Turning Point
The abrupt halt of gender-affirming care at Georgia’s top children’s hospital and the signing of the Riley Gaines Act days later reveal a stark contrast: one institution caved under pressure, while the state held the line.
Critics say there aren’t “enough” trans-identified boys in girls’ spaces to justify this law. But even one male in a girls’ locker room sends the message that female boundaries are negotiable. That alone threatens the dignity and safety of all girls.
Good intentions can’t excuse policies that erase women or endanger girls. The road to hell is paved with “inclusive” policies that deny sex and call it compassion.
Georgia showed that truth isn’t cruelty and protecting boundaries isn’t hate. This is the line. Hold it.