A federal appeals court overturned a West Virginia transgender sports ban Tuesday, ruling that the law violates Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools.
The decision from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocks a West Virginia law banning transgender students from sports teams consistent with their gender identity in public middle schools, high schools and universities.
In 2021, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), its West Virginia chapter and Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ interest group, filed a lawsuit after Gov. Jim Justice signed HB 3293 into law. The group filed on behalf of B.P.J., a 13-year-old girl who wanted to participate on her middle school’s track and field team.
The appeals court said the law could not be applied to this case since the girl has been taking puberty-blocking medication and has publicly identified as a girl since third grade. B.P.J. takes estrogen hormone therapy and has participated on girls’ sports teams since elementary school.
In Tuesday’s ruling, Judge Toby Heytens wrote “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.”
Heytens said the law exposes B.P.J. to the harms Title IX is supposed to prevent since she “would be sharing the field with boys who are larger, stronger and faster than her because of the elevated levels of circulating testosterone she lacks” if she played on a boys’ team.
“This is a tremendous victory for our client, transgender West Virginians and the freedom of all youth to play as who they are,” Joshua Block, an attorney for the ACLU, said in a statement. “This case is fundamentally about the equality of transgender youth in our schools and our communities and we’re thankful the Fourth Circuit agreed.”
In February 2023, the same appeals court blocked the law from being enforced and kept B.P.J. from being kicked off the track and field team. The Supreme Court later declined to hear an appeal on the case.
Required reading
(Photo: Justin K. Aller / Getty Images)
