CHARLESTON — A federal judge blocked a new state law that banned transgendered children from participating in school sports.
This means 11-year-old Becky Pepper-Jackson will be allowed to try out for the girls' cross-country and track teams at her school.
“I am excited to know that I will be able to try out for the girls’ cross-country team and follow in the running shoes of my family,” Pepper-Jackson said in a news release. “It hurt that the state of West Virginia would try to block me from pursuing my dreams. I just want to play.”
Pepper-Jackson, through her mother, filed the lawsuit in May against the West Virginia Board of Education.
In his order, Judge Joseph Goodwin said Pepper-Jackson would be permitted to sign up for and participate in school athletics in the same way as her classmates.
"A fear of the unknown and discomfort with the unfamiliar have motivated many of the most malignant harms committed by our country’s governments on their own citizens," Goodwin wrote. "Out of fear of those less like them, the powerful have made laws that restricted who could attend what schools, who could work certain jobs, who could marry whom, and even how people can practice their religions.
“Recognizing that classifying human beings in ways that officially sanction harm is antithetical to democracy, the states ratified the Fourteenth Amendment."
Goodwin wrote that it ensures that no state may "deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."
“This is great news for Becky, and while our work is not done yet, today’s ruling jibes with similar rulings in other courts across the country,” Avatara Smith-Carrington a Tyron Garner Memorial Law Fellow at Lambda Legal said in a news release. “It is our hope that courts recognize and address discrimination when they see it, and nowhere is it more visible than in these stark attacks against trans youth.”
Josh Block, senior staff attorney with the ACLU LGBTQ & HIV Project, said Pepper-Jackson should have the opportunity to try out for sports and play with her peers.
"We hope this also sends a message to other states to stop demonizing trans kids to score political points and to let these kids live their lives in peace," Block said.
ACLU-WV Legal Director Loree Stark said her group knew the legislation, which was signed into law by Gov. Jim Justice in April, wouldn't prevail.
“We’ve said all along this cruel legislation would not survive a legal challenge, and we’re encouraged by the court’s decision today,” Stark said in a news release. “We hope trans kids throughout West Virginia who felt attacked and wronged by the passage of this legislation are feeling empowered by today’s news.”
Kathleen Hartnett of Cooley LLP said discrimination has no place in schools or anywhere else.
“We are extremely gratified — for Becky, and for all trans youth — at the court’s recognition that the law and the facts clearly support treating people who are transgender fairly and equally," Hartnett said.
The lawsuit was filed after Justice signed House Bill 3293 into law in April.
"As part of a wave of similar legislation introduced across the country, West Virginia passed a new law in April 2021 that categorically bans B.P.J. and all other girls who are transgender in West Virginia from participating in school sports consistent with their gender identity," the complaint stated.
The complaint claims that House Bill 3293 was prompted by unfounded stereotypes, false scientific claims and baseless fear and misunderstanding of girls who are transgender.
"By barring B.P.J. and other girls who are transgender from participating in school athletics, HB 3293 discriminates on the basis of sex and transgender status in violation of the United States Constitution and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972," the complaint states. "If allowed to go into effect, HB 3293 will cause severe and entirely unnecessary harms and distress to B.P.J. and other girls who are transgender — an already vulnerable group of people subject to a history of discrimination that continues to this day."
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case number: 2:21-cv-00316