The US Supreme Court is set to decide the legality of state laws in West Virginia and Idaho banning transgender student athletes from female sports teams at public schools, including universities. The laws designate sports teams according to “biological sex” and bar “students of the male sex” from female teams.
Background
Twenty-five other states have similar laws on the books. The students who challenged the measures said they discriminate based on a person’s sex or status as transgender in violation of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment guarantee of equal protection under the law, as well as the Title IX civil rights statute that bars discrimination in education “on the basis of sex”.
The issue of transgender athletes playing on female sports teams has become part of the US culture wars. The challenge to West Virginia’s law was brought by Becky Pepper-Jackson and her mother Heather Jackson. The Idaho challenge was brought by Lindsay Hecox, a transgender student who previously participated in soccer and running clubs at Boise State University.
The Supreme Court heard arguments in January. Its conservative justices raised concerns about imposing a uniform rule on the entire country amid disagreement and uncertainty over whether medications like puberty blockers or gender-affirming hormones eliminate male physiological advantages in sports.
Original reporting: Appleton, WI News Feed (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
