US Supreme Court declines West Virginia's request to allow transgender athlete ban
Apr 07, 2023
Washington [US], April 7 : West Virginia's plea for permission to implement a state law prohibiting transgender women and girls from playing in a sports team was rejected by the Supreme Court on Thursday, CNN reported.
The court dismissed West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey's emergency plea to allow the state to enforce the 2021 law in an unsigned order, as it questions a person's gender identity.
This is the first time the sports controversy has made it to the Supreme Court thanks to West Virginia's petition. CNN reported that more than a dozen states have passed comparable restrictions since 2020, demonstrating the significant momentum that measures like House Bill 3293 have gained in GOP-led legislatures in recent years across the US.
House Bill 3293, notably prevents transgender children from joining teams that "fit with their gender identity" by prohibiting single-sex participation in interscholastic athletic competitions.
Earlier this year, a 12-year-old transgender girl named Becky Pepper-Jackson sued the state over the law immediately after it was passed, and a lower federal court earlier this year ordered the state to temporarily halt the prohibition against her, according to CNN.
The lower court's order has allowed Pepper-Jackson to compete on her middle school's cross-country and track teams, and the Supreme Court's decision to reject the emergency request ensures she can keep doing so.
Several Republican-controlled states, including at least eight in 2022 alone, have passed similar sports prohibitions in addition to West Virginia.
However, a year prior, the Supreme Court had decided that LGBTQ employees are covered by a federal civil rights legislation that prohibits sex-based workplace discrimination.
Although a 2017 audit found "no direct or consistent research" on any such benefit, conservatives have suggested that transgender women and girls have physical advantages over cisgender women and girls in sports in order to campaign for such legislation, reported CNN.
