CHARLESTON – A West Virginia State University soccer player has asked to intervene in a federal lawsuit regarding a state law that would ban transgender athletes from participating in school sports.
Attorneys for Lainey Armistead filed the motion to intervene September 10 in federal court.
In July, U.S. District Judge Joseph Goodwin filed an order blocking the new state law that would have banned transgendered children from participating in school sports.
Armistead
That meant 11-year-old Becky Pepper-Jackson was allowed to try out for the girls' cross-country and track teams at her school. 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.
But, the new state law is still being challenged. Goodwin specified in the ruling that it only applied to Pepper-Jackson, meaning any other athletes would need to go through litigation. The West Virginia Secondary School Activities Commission, the Harrison County Board of Education, the state Board of Education and the West Virginia Attorney General have asked to be dismissed from the lawsuit, arguing that they weren't the ones who created the law.
In a July 30 memorandum of law in support of the motion to dismiss, the WVBOE and Superintendent Clayton Burch argued that it is the county board that is the enforcing body – not the state board.
Attorneys for Alliance Defending Freedom are representing Armistead in her motion to intervene to defend the Save Women’s Sports Act, which was known as House Bill 3293 in this year’s legislative session.
On the West Virginia State women’s soccer website, Armistead is listed as a 5-foot-7 junior from Owensboro, Kentucky.
“I believe that protecting fairness in women’s sports is a women’s rights issue,” Armistead said in an ADF press release. “This isn’t just about fair play for me: It’s about protecting fairness and safety for female athletes across West Virginia. It’s about ensuring that future generations of female athletes are not discriminated against but have access to the same equal athletic opportunities that shaped my life.
“Being an athlete in college has made me even more passionate about the sport that I play. I want fairness, equality, and safety in sports. And I want to ensure those standards are protected for other girls, too.”
ADF Legal Counsel Christiana Holcomb said women’s sports should be both fair and safe.
“West Virginia’s Save Women’s Sports Act ensures that will continue to be the case for female athletes like Lainey,” Holcomb said. “As one who grew up in a house full of brothers who played soccer, and a dad who coached soccer, Lainey is well-acquainted with the physical differences that give males an athletic performance advantage.
“Not only that, but soccer is a rough contact sport: concussion, knee, and ankle injuries are common among female players. Add into the mix a male who races down the field at a faster pace, kicks the ball harder, and slams into other players with a larger physical frame, and the risk of injury to girls and women increases dramatically.”
Holcomb said Armistead “firmly believes” facing a person born male who identifies as female in a soccer game would change the entire dynamics on the field of play. And not for the better, she said.
“There are only 11 players per team on the field at any given time,” Holcomb said. “Any male on the women’s soccer field displaces a deserving woman. For all of these reasons and others, we are asking the court to allow Lainey to defend her interests in this case.
“She deserves a voice in this lawsuit and the opportunity to protect the future of girls’ and women’s sports in West Virginia.”
The motion reiterates that thought.
“To Armistead, allowing a male to displace a woman in a starting position on the field, or for an athletic scholarship, or for another recognition defies the purpose of women’s sports,” the motion states. “She fears that too many women feel pressured to keep their real views silent, and she fears that girls might consider not playing sports at all if they feel they cannot win against a physically superior male.”
ADF also represents female college athletes in Idaho in a similar case as well as high school female athletes in Connecticut.
Pepper-Jackson, through her mother, filed the lawsuit in May against the West Virginia Board of Education.
In his July order, 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."
The lawsuit was filed after Justice signed HB 3293 into law in April. The complaint claims the bill was prompted by unfounded stereotypes, false scientific claims and baseless fear and misunderstanding of girls who are transgender.
Armistead is being represented by Holcomb and Jonathan Scruggs for ADF, Timothy D. Ducar of Scottsdale, Arizona, and Brandon S. Steele of Beckley.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case number: 2:21-cv-00316