There is no real choice at all between giving her a “choice” between not competing in sports and joining the boys’ teams, according to Judge Toby Heytens.
“The defendants can’t anticipate that B. P. J. will countermand her social change, her medical treatment, and all the work she has done with her institutions, teachers, and mentors for nearly half her life by introducing herself to colleagues, mentors, and perhaps competitors as a child,” Heytens wrote.
The American Civil Liberties Union, its West Virginia chapter, and LGBTQ rights advocacy group Lambda Legal, which filed a complaint in 2021 against the state and county boards of education and their superintendents as defendants, were granted a favorable ruling on Tuesday. Republican Gov. Jim Justice had already signed the bill into law earlier that year.
According to ACLU West Virginia lawyer Joshua Block, “This is a great victory for our client, transgender West Virginians, and the right of all youngsters to play as they are.”
The judge noted that she has been formally living as a girl for more than five decades and has changed her name, and that the state of West Virginia has given her a birth certificate listing her as a woman. In finding that the law violates Title IX when applied to the girl, she is said to be taking both estrogen and puberty-blocking drugs. Starting in secondary school, she has participated only on girls’ athletic teams.
“B. P. J. has demonstrated that applying the law to her would treat her worse than people to whom she is similarly situated, prevent her from having any significant sport opportunities, and do so on the basis of sex. That is all Title IX requires,” Heytens wrote.
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, a Republican, said he was “deeply disappointed” in the decision.
“I’ll continue to fight to preserve Title IX safe. In order to ensure girls’ security is assured and girls have a really good playing field,” the Attorney General continued, adding that we must continue to work to protect women’s sports. We are aware that the law is sound and will use every resource we have to protect it.”
In recent years, sports participation has been one of the major fronts in legal and legislative battles involving the position of transgender people in the U.S. common career. Most Republican-controlled states have passed regulations on contribution, as well as restrictions on gender-affirming health treatment for adolescents. Some restrictions apply to trans people’s access to locker rooms and bathrooms, especially in schools.
West Virginia is one of at least 24 states that prohibit trans women and girls from competing in particular female or male sporting events.
The restrictions are in consequence in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and Wyoming.
In addition to West Virginia, magistrates have temporarily put protection of the restrictions on hold in Arizona, Idaho, and Utah. However, the 2nd Circuit reintroduced a challenge to Connecticut’s scheme of letting transgender women compete in female sports last year, sending it back to a lower court without ruling on its qualities.
Later this month, restrictions will be implemented in Ohio.
The Biden administration had intended to introduce a new national Title IX law, which addresses both school sexual assault and transgender athletes and prohibits discrimination based on gender in training. The division made the decision to divide them into separate rules earlier this year, but the athletics concept is still undetermined.
John Raby, The Associated Press
