A federal appeals court overturned a law in West Virginia that bans so-called “transgender” athletes from competing in sports of the opposite gender, setting up yet another legal showdown over the contentious issue of “trans” sports.
As reported by ABC News, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that West Virginia’s law violates Title IX, the federal statute which deals with gender-based discrimination in education. The case concerned a 13-year-old boy who believes he is a girl, and has been taking puberty-blockers in an attempt to convince others of his new “trans” identity; the court ruled in his favor.
“Offering B.P.J. a ‘choice’ between not participating in sports and participating only on boys teams is no real choice at all,” the court said in its statement. “The defendants cannot expect that B.P.J. will countermand [his] social transition, [his] medical treatment, and all the work [he] has done with [his] schools, teachers, and coaches for nearly half [his] life by introducing [himself] to teammates, coaches, and even opponents as a boy.”
The defendants in the case include the West Virginia State Board of Education and the State of West Virginia; they argued that sports must remain separated based on the clear biological differences between the two genders, male and female, with no accommodations for those who believe they are of the opposite gender or even a “third” gender option.
The far-left American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which represented the teenage boy in the case, celebrated the ruling as “a tremendous victory for our client, transgender West Virginians, and the freedom of all youth to play as who they are.”
“It also continues a string of federal courts ruling against bans on the participation of transgender athletes and in favor of their equal participation as the gender they know themselves to be,” said Joshua Block, senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project. “This case is fundamentally about the equality of transgender youth in our schools and our communities and we’re thankful the Fourth Circuit agreed.”
The ban was first signed into law in 2021 by Governor Jim Justice (R-W.V.). It made West Virginia one of 25 states that had an anti-trans ban on the books. The state may now attempt to appeal its case to the Supreme Court, which recently ruled in favor of a similar trans ban in the state of Idaho.