A federal appeals court struck down West Virginia’s ban on transgender sports, finding the law violated Title IX, the federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools
CHARLESTON, WV – A federal appeals court has struck down West Virginia’s ban on transgender sports, finding the law violated Title IX, the federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools.
A 2-1 decision Tuesday by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked a West Virginia law barring transgender girls from playing on women’s sports teams.
The court said the law could not legally apply to a 13-year-old girl who had taken puberty blockers and publicly identified as a girl since she was in the third grade.
In February 2023, a court blocked the state’s attempt to expel Becky Pepper Jackson from her high school track and field team if the law was implemented.
The court on Tuesday ruled in favor of the American Civil Liberties Union, its West Virginia chapter and LGBTQ advocacy group Lambda Legal, which filed a lawsuit in 2021 against the state and county boards of education and their leaders as defendants. Republican Gov. Jim Justice had signed a bill earlier that year.
“This is a huge victory for our client, transgender West Virginians, and the freedom of all youth to play as who they are,” ACLU West Virginia attorney Joshua Block said in a statement.
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrissey, a Republican, said he was “deeply disappointed” by the ruling.
“I will continue to fight to protect Title IX. We must continue to work to protect women’s sports so that women’s safety is ensured and girls have a truly fair game,” added the Attorney General. “We know the law is right and we will use every tool available to protect it.”
Sports participation has been one of the main fronts in legislative and legal battles in recent years over the role of transgender people in US public life. Most Republican-controlled states passed participation restrictions as well as bans on gender-affirming health care for minors. Several have also restricted which bathrooms and locker rooms transgender people can use, especially in schools.
West Virginia is one of at least 24 states with a law that prohibits transgender women and girls from competing in certain sports for women or girls.
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 stayed the bans in Arizona, Idaho and Utah.
Ohio’s ban is set to go into effect later this month.
The Biden administration initially planned to release a new federal rule, Title IX — the law prohibiting gender-based discrimination in education — affecting both campus sexual assault and transgender athletes. Earlier this year, the department decided to separate them into separate rules, and the athletics rule now remains in limbo.
Last year, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling blocking a ban on transgender athletes competing in girls’ and women’s sports in Idaho.
The Second Circuit ruled differently last year in a challenge to Connecticut’s policy to allow transgender girls to compete in women’s sports, reopened the case and sent it back to a lower court without ruling on the merits.
