West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has vowed to appeal an unfavorable court ruling overturning the state’s transgender sports ban all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, with athlete and policy advocate Riley Gaines joining him in calling for protections for women’s sports.
Calling the case one of the most important cases that his office his handled in more than a decade, Mr. Morrisey defended the Save Women’s Sports Bill as “reasonable.”
“It’s based on biology and it’s based on fairness,” he said. “We’re working to defend the integrity of women’s sports. We must protect our young women,” he continued, adding that, “every time a biological male competes, he takes away an opportunity from a biological girl.”
Mr. Morrisey added that it’s not just a question of fairness, but of safety, noting that boys are stronger and faster than girls even if they didn’t go through puberty, and so protections like the ones afforded by the Save Women’s Sports Bill are necessary.
Safety Risk for Women and Girls
Ms. Gaines shared her experience of being a collegiate swimmer who competed against Lia Thomas, a male who identifies as female, and pointed to the safety risks associated with men being allowed into women’s sports.“Not only do women have to worry about losing opportunities and being exploited in locker rooms, but allowing men into women’s sports also puts girls at greater risk of injury,” she said. Acknowledging that sports injuries can and do happen when women compete against women, Ms. Gaines insisted that “allowing males to play in women’s sports increases the likelihood and severity of such injuries.”
Jack Jarvis, communications director for Fairness West Virginia, said that Mr. Morrisey’s statements about transgender youth contribute to a hostile environment with increased harassment, bullying, and discrimination.
“If you want to support women, you need to support all women,” Mr. Jarvis said, according to The Associated Press. “Becky and all of the other trans youth across our state deserve to fully participate in school activities and athletic events.”
The 13-year-old transgender student continues to participate in girls running sports.
After the Save Women’s Sports Bill was signed into law by West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice in 2021, it was quickly challenged in court by the ACLU.
The group argued that Becky Pepper-Jackson (referred to in court filings by the initials B.P.J.) never underwent male puberty and so doesn’t have any athletic advantage over naturally-born girls. B.P.J. was diagnosed with gender dysphoria in 2019 and was treated with puberty blockers followed by “gender-affirming” hormone therapy.
Legal Wrangling
Initially, Southern District of West Virginia Judge Joseph R. Goodwin, a Clinton appointee, issued a preliminary injunction in July 2021, temporarily blocking the transgender sports ban. However, Judge Goodwin later reversed this decision, ruling that the law is “constitutionally permissible.”The Fourth Circuit heard oral arguments in the case in October 2023 and issued its final decision on April 16, 2024, reversing the transgender sports ban and ruling that it violates Title IX protections.
“The Act’s sole purpose—and its sole effect—is to prevent transgender girls from playing on girls teams,” Fourth Circuit Judge Toby Heytens, a Biden appointee, wrote in the 68-page ruling.
The judge argued that offering B.P.J. a choice between participating on boys teams in line with their biological sex “is no real choice at all” because of all the transgender treatments B.P.J. had undertaken, and that it’s unreasonable to expect a reversal of these changes.
Judge Heytens said that West Virginia’s transgender sports ban amounted to sex-based discrimination that violates Title IX protections.
“By participating on boys teams, B.P.J. 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,” the judge wrote. “The Act thus exposes B.P.J. to the very harms Title IX is meant to prevent by effectively ‘exclud[ing]’ her from ‘participation in’ all non-coed sports entirely.”
The ACLU hailed the ruling while Mr. Morrisey decried it and vowed to continue to fight for the integrity of women and girls sports, leading to his Wednesday pledge to appeal to the Supreme Court.
West Virginia is one of at least 24 states with laws that prohibit biological males from competing in certain women’s or girls sports competitions.
“If we allow this decision to stand, then those laws are in danger, too,” Mr. Morrisey said during the news conference.
