When it comes to allowing men and boys to play women’s and girls sports, there are two paths forward: the "woke" way or the correct way.

Nevada Democrats are pushing the woke way. This week, they introduced a bill that would allow the state’s Education Department to fine school boards up to $5,000 per day if those boards adopt policies that restrict school facilities or activities based on “gender identity or expression.” In other words, school boards will be fined if they prevent boys from using girls restrooms or playing girls sports .

Nevada has a Republican governor, so you would hope that this bill is dead on arrival so long as it contains this provision, but this policy is already being embraced by Democratic-run states. The effects of male participation in female sports range from girls losing roster spots, scholarships, and championship opportunities to entire schools being disqualified because one girls team doesn’t want to compete in a contact sport against a boy.

On the other hand, there is the correct way to deal with this problem, which Alabama has embraced. The state already banned boys from playing on girls teams in K-12 public schools, but Alabama decided to stick its neck out even further, recently passing a law that will ban men from playing on women’s college sports teams.

These choices have also been laid out in sports media. ESPN’s Sam Ponder correctly noted that the Biden administration’s proposed Title IX changes would “take away so many opportunities for biological women and girls in sports.” At USA Today, Nancy Armour then called her a bigot and implied that there are no differences between male and female athletes.

This debate is not just about fairness in certain events or sports. It is about whether girls and women should be able to play sports at all. Alabama and Sam Ponder say yes. Nevada Democrats and Nancy Armour, by claiming there are no differences between men and women, are implicitly saying that sex-segregated sports should not exist. That is the only logical conclusion of their anti-science argument.

Ask yourself, if women’s and men’s teams were folded into one, how many women would make a basketball team competing against men? Or a soccer team? Or a track and field team? The answer is zero. Female athletes wouldn’t exist outside of gymnastics. That is the only logical conclusion if we follow the Nevada and Armour path on this issue.

Alabama and Ponder are correct that female athletes deserve the opportunity to compete, fairly, against each other. They should not have to worry about being run out of their sport, or injured while playing their sport, by men. Either women’s sports can exist, or transgender activists can be allowed to end them. Those are the two paths the sports world is facing, and both sports and political leaders should choose the correct one.