CHARLESTON, W. Va. A federal appeals court overturned transgender sports restrictions in West Virginia, ruling that they contravened Title IX, a federal civil rights law that forbids sex-based discrimination in schools.
The Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday blocked a West Virginia law prohibiting transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports teams.
A 13-year-old girl who has been taking puberty-blocking medication and has identified as a girl since fourth grade was the focus of the case.
If the laws were upheld, the state’s request to remove Becky Pepper Jackson from her middle school track and field team in February 2023 would have been denied.
There’s no real choice between giving her a decision to play for boys’ teams or not, according to Judge Toby Heytens.
“The defendants can’t expect B. P. J. to reverse her social transition, her medical treatment, and all the work she has done with her schools, teachers, and coaches for nearly half her life by presenting herself to peers, coaches, and possibly competitors as a boy,” Heytens wrote.
The American Civil Liberties Union, its West Virginia chapter, and the LGBTQ rights advocacy group Lambda Legal, which filed a lawsuit in 2021 against the state and county boards of education and their superintendents as defendants, received a favorable ruling on Tuesday. Republican Gov. Jim Justice had already signed the bill into law earlier that year.
“This is a significant victory for transgender West Virginians and the right of all youth to play as they are,” said ACLU West Virginia attorney Joshua Block in a statement.
The court ruled that the law violates Title IX when applied to the girl because she has changed her name and lived publicly as a girl for more than five years, and West Virginia has issued her a birth certificate listing her as a girl. She is said to be taking both estrogen and puberty-blocking medication. She has participated only on girls’ athletic teams since elementary school.
“B. P. J. has demonstrated that applying the law to her would treat her worse than similarly situated individuals, deprive her of any meaningful athletic 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 will continue to fight to keep Title IX safe. In order to ensure girls’ safety and a truly fair playing field,” the Attorney General continued, “we must keep working to protect women’s sports.” We are aware of the law’s validity and will use all means at our disposal to defend it.”
In recent years, sports participation has become a major battleground in legislative and legal battles over the role of transgender people in U.S. public life. Most Republican-controlled states have passed restrictions on participation, as well as bans on gender-affirming health care for minors. Additionally, some have imposed restrictions on which locker rooms and bathrooms transgender people can use, particularly in public spaces.
West Virginia is one of at least 24 states that prohibit transgender women and girls from competing in specific female or male sports events.
The bans are in effect 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, judges have temporarily halted enforcement of the bans in Arizona, Idaho, and Utah. However, the Second Circuit reintroduced a challenge to Connecticut’s policy, which allows transgender girls to compete in girls’ sports last year, and sent it back to a lower court without ruling on its merits.
Later this month, a ban in Ohio will take effect.
The Biden administration had planned to introduce a new federal Title IX rule, addressing both campus sexual assault and transgender athletes, prohibiting discrimination based on sex in education. The department decided to separate them into distinct rules earlier this year, and the athletics rule is still under debate.
