First posted on Instagram · @profilopolitics
Helena Buonanno Foulkes, the Democratic candidate for Rhode Island governor, says biological males should be allowed to compete in girls' sports — staking out one of the most contested positions in the country as she campaigns for the state's top job.
The stance puts her on a direct collision course with the Trump administration, which has moved to keep biological males out of women's and girls' sports, and with the growing number of states that have written fairness protections for female athletes into law. In Rhode Island, her position instantly turns the governor's race into another front in the national fight over girls' sports.
Supporters of Foulkes' position frame it as a matter of inclusion, arguing that transgender athletes should be able to compete consistent with their gender identity. Critics — including fairness advocates, many parents, and female athletes — argue that biological males carry inherent physical advantages that no amount of accommodation erases, and that girls' sports were created precisely to give female athletes a fair field of their own.
The issue has become one of the sharpest dividing lines in American politics, cutting across governor's races, school board fights, and federal policy. For voters who rank fairness in women's sports among their top concerns, a candidate's answer has become a litmus test — and Foulkes has now given hers, clearly.
With the November election approaching, Rhode Island voters will get to decide whether they want a governor who sides with inclusion or one who sides with the female athletes asking for a level playing field. Foulkes has made her choice. Now it's their turn.