The woke Left loves protesters who do so in favor of opinions and ideologies with which they agree. However, as has become patently clear over the last several years, the Left has a double standard when it comes to the right to protest. Indeed, the Left has a double standard when it comes to most civil rights.

Recently, we observed the story of five brave girls from Lincoln Middle School in West Virginia. These five girls, who are on their school’s track and field team, engaged in a silent protest over having to compete against a boy who identifies as a girl.

Their protest occurred during the shot put competition, with each stepping into the thrower’s circle at their turn and then stepping away without an attempt, thereby registering an intentional scratch. It was their way of expressing their objection to the boy’s presence in the girls’ competition. To no one’s surprise, the gender-bending boy won the competition, but the girls’ protest was caught on video and spread on social media.

Unfortunately, the girls’ protest was not well received by the Harrison County Board of Education, which proceeded to ban them from any future competition. One of the girls’ parents also said the track coach informed them that she had been barred from meets because her job was to “score points for the track team.”

Four of the girls’ parents have since filed a lawsuit against the board of education, alleging that its decision to ban the girls amounted to punishing them for “exercising their rights to freedom of speech and expression under the Constitution of West Virginia.”

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is joining the parents in the lawsuit. The girls’ actions “were not disruptive or aggrandizing,” he noted. “They were the quiet demonstration of the student-athletes’ evident unhappiness with the competitive consequences of a federal appellate court’s decision.”

Morrisey added: “The only thing this decision does is teach these children to keep their mouths shut and not disagree with what they saw as unfairness. That is outrageous and it tramples these students’ rights to freedom of speech and expression.”

Former SEC champion swimmer and women’s rights activist Riley Gaines has also registered her support, posting on social media: “These girls stood up for what they believed and their coach barred them from competing. Insane.”

The girls’ objective is simply fair play in girls’ sports, and Morrisey seems willing to take the issue to the Supreme Court if necessary. “I will do everything in my power to defend these brave young girls,” he promised. “This is just wrong. We must stand for what’s right and oppose these radical trans policies.”

Indeed. Thankfully, we are seeing more of these types of protests. Fighting for what’s right is not always easy or comfortable, which is why we need to encourage everyone who dares to do so.