The Supreme Court of the United States has scheduled oral arguments in West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little v. Hecox for Jan. 13, according to a press release from Lambda Legal.
The two cases focus on challenges brought by transgender students against laws that categorically ban transgender women and girls like them from athletic programs based on their gender identity, the press release explained, saying that the two cases “charge the bans with violating the rights of transgender and cisgender female students under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
“In addition,” the press release continues, “West Virginia v. B.P.J. argues that the bans violate Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in educational programs. Federal courts have blocked enforcement of these bans in both lawsuits.”
Lambda Legal notes that since 2020, 27 states have banned transgender youth from playing school sports. Many of these bans allow for “invasive forms of sex testing that put all female student-athletes at risk and embolden intrusive challenges to student athletes’ sex.”
In Florida, a 15-year-old junior varsity volleyball player was the subject of a police investigation after an anonymous accusation, prompting local officials to draft a 500-page report investigating her medical history, body weightcand anatomy.
In Utah, a teenage basketball player was accused of being transgender by a member of the state board of education, leading to threats of violence against her and her family, and a teenager in Maine faced a similar attack from a state senator.
In May, President Donald Trump similarly targeted a 16-year-old transgender girl for participating in a high school track meet. Under an Arizona ban, a cisgender male student was prohibited from participating on the boy’s team at his high school because of a clerical error that listed him as female on his original birth certificate.
Many women athletes have spoken out against bullying and discrimination against transgender student-athletes, including Billie Jean King, Megan Rapinoe, Dawn Staley, Sue Bird, and Brianna Turner, as well as leading organizations fighting for gender equality in athletics including the Women’s Sports Foundation, the Women’s National Basketball Player’s Association and the National Women’s Law Center.