The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld two state laws that barred men from competing in women’s sports.
In the cases of West Virginia v. B.P.J. and Little v. Hecox, the court upheld state laws — one in West Virginia and one from Idaho — that barred men from competing against women.
The vote in the cases, which were combined into one ruling, was 6-3.
Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett made up the majority in the case. The liberal wing of the court — Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan – dissented.
The West Virginia case began in 2021, when the state passed the Save Women’s Sports Act, which banned women from being forced to compete against men. The American Civil Liberties Union challenged the law. The Alliance Defending Freedom then entered the case, representing Lainey Armistead, a former soccer player at West Virginia State University.
A federal district court upheld the state law, but an appellate court reversed that decision, according to the ADF.
“A male’s perceptions about his gender identity doesn’t erase his physical advantages over female athletes, and girls deserve to compete on a level playing field,” the ADF noted.
Should transgenders be banned from women’s sports?
“Allowing males to compete in girls’ sports destroys fair competition, safety on the field, and women’s athletic opportunities. When biological differences between men and women are ignored, people get hurt,” the ADF said.
Idaho enacted its Fairness in Women’s Sports Act in March 2020, which was immediately challenged by the ACLU, according to the ADF.
The ADF represented Madison Kenyon and Mary Kate Marshall, who were both negatively impacted by having to compete against a transgender athlete.
The case came to the Supreme Court after an unfavorable ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.
The impact of the West Virginia law was shown this spring when Becky Pepper-Jackson, 15, a male who claims he is female, won the state Class AAA shot put competition, far outdistancing his second-place rival, according to the Gazette Mail.
“It’s just plain wrong to allow a boy to participate and win a girls’ sporting event,” Gov. Patrick Morrisey said.
“I’ve continued the fight for girls’ sports and have made clear that under my watch West Virginia will celebrate the true winners of these championships.” Morrisey said.
Republican state Sen. Brian Helton, chair of the West Virginia Senate’s Health and Human Resources Committee, said, “Common sense with adults needs to prevail so that we don’t pretend a person is a biological sex that they’re not,” Helton said.
“We have a responsibility to teach children, and to help them understand that it is a mental illness to have gender dysphoria. We need to have compassion, teach the children and coach them, and get them the counseling that they need, as opposed to pretending like it’s perfectly OK for them to go and compete against girls,” he said.
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