From ABC7 News: The Supreme Court is hearing arguments Tuesday over state laws barring transgender girls and women from playing on school athletic teams.
Lower courts ruled for the transgender athletes in Idaho and West Virginia who challenged the state bans, but the conservative-dominated Supreme Court might not follow suit.
In just the past year, the justices ruled in favor state bans on gender-affirming care for transgender youths and allowed multiple restrictions on transgender people to be enforced.
Idaho and West Virginia were among the first to ban transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s teams. Over two dozen Republican-led states ultimately banned the practice, all watching the Court’s decision carefully.
The cases revolve around claims of sex discrimination lodged by Lindsay Hecox, 25, and Becky Pepper-Jackson, 15. The court is weighing their claims against the claims by the states of unfair competition for women and girls.
Hecox sued over Idaho after it passed the first-in-the-nation ban on transgender participation in sports. Hecox was seeking the opportunity to try out for the women’s track and cross-country teams at Boise State University in Idaho.
Pepper-Jackson sued West Virginia for the ability to compete in girls’ sports. She has reportedly identified as a girl in public since age 8 and was issued a West Virginia birth certificate designating that she is female. According to ABC7, “Pepper-Jackson has progressed from a back-of-the-pack cross-country runner in middle school to a statewide third-place finish in the discus in just her first year of high school.”
No other transgender person in West Virginia has sought a position on a girl’s sports team.
The oral arguments will center around whether the sports bans go against the Constitution or Title IX, a key federal law that protects against sex discrimination in schools.
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Read more at ABC 7
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