Becky Pepper Jackson
The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals today (Tuesday, April 16) voted to block a West Virginia law banning transgender student athletes from playing on teams consistent with their gender identity, finding the law violates the rights of transgender students under the Equal Protection Clause and Title IX.
The challenge against the law was filed on behalf of B.P.J., a 13-year-old transgender girl and middle school track athlete.
Judge Toby Heytens wrote in today’s ruling that “offering B.P.J. a ‘choice’ between not participating in sports and participating only on boys teams is no real choice at all. The defendants cannot expect that B.P.J. will countermand 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 introducing herself to teammates, coaches and even opponents as a boy.”
Joshua Block, senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project called the ruling “a tremendous victory for our client, transgender West Virginians and the freedom of all youth to play as who they are.”
Block noted that the court’s ruling is the latest in a string of federal courts ruling against such bans. “This case is fundamentally about the equality of transgender youth in our schools and our communities and we’re thankful the Fourth Circuit agreed,” he said.
Lambda Legal Staff Attorney for Youth Sruti Swaminathan said the court’s decision made clear that “West Virginia’s effort to ban one 13-year-old transgender girl from joining her teammates on the middle school cross country and track team was singling out Becky for disparate treatment because of her sex. That’s discrimination pure and simple, and we applaud the court for arriving at this just decision.”
And Aubrey Sparks, legal director of the ACLU of West Virginia, added, “We hope today’s ruling sends a message of hope to the trans youth of West Virginia and a message of warning to politicians who continue to dehumanize this vulnerable population.”
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice signed HB 3293, which bars transgender student-athletes from participating on the school athletic teams most consistent with their gender identity, into law in April 2021. The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of West Virginia and Lambda Legal filed a lawsuit the next month — May 2021 — challenging the law on behalf of Becky Pepper Jackson, a 12-year-old girl who would be kicked off her middle school’s track and field team if the law were enforced.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit blocked the state’s effort to kick Becky off the team in February 2023 as the legal advocates appealed a lower court ruling upholding the 2021 ban. In a March 9, 2023 filing, Attorney General Patrick Morrissey asked the Supreme Court for an emergency motion allowing the state to enforce HB 3293 and kick Becky off her middle school’s track and field team. The Court rejected this first attempt in April 2023.
West Virginia is one of 21 states — including Texas — that have banned transgender student-athletes in just the last three years as part of an escalating wave of state-level restrictions on the rights of transgender people. A similar federal lawsuit is pending in Idaho.
Today’s ruling can be found here. Find more on B.P.J. v. West Virginia State Board of Education here.
— Tammye Nash
