NBC News Issues Trigger Warning Before Quoting ‘Biological Male’ In Trans Ruling

NBC News gave viewers a trigger warning on Tuesday before quoting the phrases “biological male” and “biological female” from the Supreme Court’s landmark transgender athlete ruling.

A majority of the justices ruled that states have the constitutional power to ban men from women’s sports, dealing another blow to the transgender movement. 

“Just a quick note here. The terms that we’re using here during our reporting, biological male, biological female, the high court put those terms in quotations in their decision and their dissent,” NBC News anchor Craig Melvin said.

“But just so you know, we’re using those terms from the decision itself, biological male, biological female,” he added. 

Liberal media corporation NBC warns its viewers that they are reading quotes from the Supreme Court majority ruling that states can ban male participation in competitive female sports in schools and universities. Leftists find “biological male” triggering. pic.twitter.com/lx1j7cA7L4

— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) June 30, 2026

The network’s White House correspondent, Kelly O’Donnell, downplayed the political salience of the issue, saying, “the numbers of transgender athletes … is a very small pool, in many ways.” 

NBC was not the only network to frame the ruling sympathetically toward transgender-identifying athletes. Over on ABC, the network’s Supreme Court reporter, Devin Dwyer, praised the transgender-identifying plaintiffs, saying they “bravely brought this case” and said the high court’s ruling reflected  “a blow” to transgender-identifying people everywhere “on this last day of Pride Month.” 

WATCH: ABC News is very sad about the Supreme Court keeping biological men out of women’s sports, denying trans kids who “bravely brought this case” and “a blow” to trans people everywhere “on this last day of Pride Month”… pic.twitter.com/CRIsKmOIvM

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) June 30, 2026

ABC’s Mary Bruce shifted the focus to President Donald Trump, saying, “rarely does a day go by here at the White House when the president doesn’t rail against the participation of transgender female athletes in girls and women’s sports.”

In a ruling authored by Justice Brett Kavanaugh and joined by the other conservative justices, the Supreme Court held that Title IX  allows schools to determine eligibility for women’s and girls’ sports teams based on biological sex. Liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson agreed with parts of the majority opinion and dissented on other parts.

“They may determine eligibility for women’s and girls’ sports based on biological sex,” Justice Kavanaugh wrote. “The Constitution and Title IX do not require an overhaul of women’s and girls’ sports throughout America.”

In a solo concurrence, Justice Clarence Thomas went a step further.

“Men and boys with gender dysphoria are not women or girls, even if they believe they are,” he wrote.

The landmark decision centered on laws passed by Idaho and West Virginia restricting transgender-identifying athletes from competing in female athletics. More than half the states have enacted similar laws to protect female sports and locker rooms. The justices upheld those bans and left for another day the question of whether Title IX requires states to prohibit transgender-identifying athletes from competing against women.

Beyond the screens of mainstream media, Tuesday’s ruling did not sit well with leftist politicians, including California state Sen. Scott Weiner, who is running to succeed Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) in November. 

“In upholding trans sports bans, the Supreme Court has once again fueled the campaign to erase and dehumanize trans people,” Weiner said on social media. “And the way the Court wrote the decision opens the door for other efforts to eliminate trans people from public life.”

Back in DC, Tuesday’s ruling represents a momentous victory for the Trump administration, which issued an executive order in February 2025 directing the federal government to strip funding from schools that allow transgender-identifying students to compete in female athletics, calling the practice “demeaning, unfair, and dangerous to women and girls.”

“BIG WIN: The United States Supreme Court just RULED AGAINST MEN PLAYING IN WOMEN’S SPORTS,” Trump celebrated on Truth Social. “Wow! That takes that ridiculous situation off the table!!!