Transgender Athletes Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

State Politicians Voice Support For Harrison County Student Athletes Protesting Inclusion Of Transgender Student

Multiple West Virginia politicians have voiced their support of student athletes protesting a transgender student’s inclusion in a track and field event.

Five students forfeited a shot-put competition on April 18 at the 2024 Harrison County Middle School Championships track and field meet in protest of a Fourth Circuit decision that House Bill 3293 violated Title IX protections for gender equality in school sports.

Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said last week that he will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to consider BPJ vs. West Virginia State Board of Education.

Parents for four of the students have since filed suit against the Harrison County Board of Education in Harrison County Circuit Court after the students were not permitted to compete in a scheduled track and field meet on April 27.

The West Virginia Secondary Schools Activities Commission (WVSSAC) rule book states in its section on sportsmanship that teams, coaches and attendants are required “to remain in or a part of a contest until its normal end as provided by the National Federation Rules of that particular sport.” Failure to do so, it goes on, “will not only involve ejection during that particular contest but shall also involve that student, coach or team attendant not being a part of that school’s team for the next regularly scheduled contest(s) or post season progression in a playoff tournament, as regulated in §127-4-3.7.3.”

Tuesday evening, Morrisey released a statement in support of the students, highlighting a brief he filed in favor of their suit.

“The only thing this decision does is teach these children to keep their mouths shut and not disagree with what they saw as unfairness,” he said. “That is outrageous and it tramples these students’ rights to freedom of speech and expression.”

Morrisey’s amicus brief argues that “the Code of State Rules’ provisions for handling a protest action do not justify the Defendants’ actions here, and the Free Speech implications of the school’s actions are deeply concerning.”

Senate President Craig Blair, R-Berkeley, also released a statement condemning Harrison County Schools’ actions on behalf of the Senate Majority Caucus.

“Despite that procedure being clearly defined in the Code of State Rules, Harrison County Schools unilaterally decided to punish these female students by prohibiting them from competing in their next track meet,” the statement reads. “By refusing to adhere to these standards, Harrison County Schools is showing a galling lack of concern for the free-speech considerations of those students, as well as the safety of those students, because of unfair competition with males.”

Congressman Alex Mooney also released a statement regarding the “attack on women’s sports in Harrison County.”

“It is completely outrageous for a school board and coaches to punish girls for standing up for women’s sports. Young women should not be forced to compete against young men. It is asinine and unbelievable that a school in West Virginia, not California, would adopt this woke nonsense,” Mooney said.

Morrisey Asks U.S. Supreme Court To Hear Transgender Athlete Ban

The Supreme Court last year declined to take the case when Morrisey asked.

West Virginia’s attorney general will again ask the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the state’s ban on transgender student athletes.

Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said Wednesday he’d ask the justices to consider BPJ vs. West Virginia State Board of Education.

The Supreme Court last year declined to take the case when Morrisey asked. That was before the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, ruled that the law, House Bill 3293, violated Title IX protections for gender equality in school sports.

There is no guarantee the justices will be any more inclined to hear the case now.

“We will be filing, over the next month, and we’re going to make sure we time our filing to maximize the chance this case is going to be heard, and most importantly, that we will win,” he said.

Morrisey, who’s running for governor in the Republican primary, appeared with former collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines, who’s become a national figure in the opposition to transgender women and girls participating in school sports.

The campaigns of Morrisey and another Republican candidate, Chris Miller, have been airing competing advertisements declaring each candidate has the stronger position against transgender student athletes.

Another Republican rival, Secretary of State Mac Warner, said Wednesday that Morrisey should step away from the case because he lost the appeal to the Fourth Circuit.

“He should voluntarily step aside and allow competent legal counsel to defend the West Virginia law that was overwhelmingly passed by the WV Legislature and signed by Governor Justice,” Warner said.

Meanwhile, the 13-year-old student in Harrison County, Becky Pepper Jackson, continues to participate on her school’s track team.

Jack Jarvis, communications director for Fairness West Virginia, said Morrisey’s statements about transgender youth contribute to a hostile environment with increased harassment, bullying and discrimination.

“Transgender women are women, period,” Jarvis said. “If you want to support women, you need to support all women. Becky and all of the other trans youth across our state deserve to fully participate in school activities and athletic events.”

Federal Court Rejects State Transgender Student Athlete Ban

The ACLU and Lambda Legal, a national LGBTQ rights law firm, brought the case on behalf of a 13-year-old middle school student in Harrison County who wanted to run on her track team.

A federal appeals court struck down West Virginia’s ban on transgender student participation in school sports Tuesday.

The Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia, said the 2021 law violated Title IX, the landmark 1972 law that enshrined gender equality in school sports.

The ACLU and Lambda Legal, a national LGBTQ rights law firm, brought the case on behalf of a 13-year-old middle school student in Harrison County who wanted to run on her track team.

“The ruling makes clear that the law is discriminatory,” said Billy Wolfe, an ACLU-WV spokesman, in an email. The student, Becky Pepper-Jackson, is the only one affected by the ruling, Wolfe said, but encouraged others who might be affected to contact the ACLU.

The 2-1 decision, for now, invalidates House Bill 3293, which the legislature enacted and Gov. Jim Justice signed.

Last year, a U.S. district judge upheld the enforcement of the law, but the Fourth Circuit overruled that decision.

In an emergency appeal last year, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey asked the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the state to enforce the law while the Fourth Circuit considered the case. The justices declined.

In a statement Tuesday, Morrisey said he would continue to defend the law.

West Virginia is one of 21 states that have enacted some type of restriction on transgender student participation in school sports.

In 2020, the Fourth Circuit ruled in favor of a Virginia transgender boy who challenged his school’s refusal to let him use the bathroom that matched his gender identity.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal in that case as well.

In Tuesday’s ruling, one of the three judges, G. Steven Agee, dissented. He was nominated by President George W. Bush to the court in 2008.

Justice Promotes Bill To Define ‘Woman’ In State Code

A piece of legislation introduced on Jan. 26, 2024, aims to define sex-based terms used in state law.

In a Monday press conference, Gov. Jim Justice promoted House Bill 5243 alongside representatives from the Independent Women’s Law Center and Independent Women’s Voice.

The bill is called the “West Virginia Women’s Bill of Rights” or “The West Virginia Act to Define Sex-Based Terms Used in State Law, Help Protect Single Sex Spaces, and Ensure the Accuracy of Public Data Collection.”

“What we’re basically saying is, that women are women, and women are really important,” Justice said.

Riley Gaines is an ambassador for Independent Women’s Voice. She described her experience swimming on a team with a transgender female as “violating and betrayal.”

“We as female athletes, female swimmers, we watched on the side of the pool as this mediocre male swam to a national title beating up the most impressive and accomplished female swimmers this nation and world really has ever seen including Olympians, American record holders,” Gaines said.

May Mailman is the director of the Independent Women’s Law Center. She said allowing for interpretation of the word “woman” in the law is offensive.

“Judges, bureaucrats, sports bodies and other elites seemed not to know that women existed at all, they equated us to a state of mind,” Mailman said. “Identification replaced the biology, biological reality that we have been living our entire lives.”

Isabella Cortez is the Gender Policy Manager for Fairness West Virginia, a statewide civil rights advocacy organization dedicated to fair treatment and civil rights for LGBTQ+ West Virginians.

“It’s offensive to introduce a bill called the Women’s Bill of Rights when the bill does nothing to support women,” Cortez said. “It doesn’t give women any new rights, and it doesn’t do anything to protect the rights that women already have.”

Cortez said out-of-state lobbyists drafted the bill.

“Our lawmakers should not trust this group, the so-called Independent Women’s Voice, because there’s nothing independent about what they do,” Cortez said. “They take money from the Koch brothers and they use that dark money to oppose the Equal Rights Amendment, oppose the Paycheck Fairness Act, and also downplay the overturning of Roe v. Wade.”

Cortez said the bill aims to ban transgender people from using the bathroom that aligns with their identity in public spaces.

“There is simply no evidence that allowing transgender people to use restrooms that align with their gender identity increases, you know, risks, or danger or poses any safety risks,” Cortez said.

Cortez said she and Fairness West Virginia want transgender West Virginians to know that they will not stop fighting for them.

“We know things are scary right now, but you are seen you are loved,” Cortez said. “We will do everything that we can to keep you safe and to keep you protected in this state.”

House Bill 5243 is being considered by the House Judiciary Committee.

Morrisey Argues In Favor Of Trans Sports Ban To Fourth Circuit

On Friday, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey continued to defend the state’s law barring transgender athletes from participating on sports teams that align with their gender identity.

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey presented arguments Friday to the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia in a case challenging West Virginia’s law barring transgender athletes from participating on sports teams that align with their gender identity.

In 2021, the West Virginia Legislature enacted a law “to defend the integrity of women’s sports” that prohibits transgender girls and women in the state from competing on sports teams at “any public secondary school or state institution of higher education.”

The bill was signed into law by Gov. Jim Justice on April 28, 2021.

The American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of West Virginia, Lambda Legal, and Cooley LLP challenged the law on May 8, 2021, on behalf of Becky Pepper Jackson, a now 13-year-old middle school transgender girl who would be kicked off her middle school’s girls’ cross country and track and field teams if the law were enforced.

Since then, Morrisey’s office has fought to dismiss the lawsuit.

Morrisey was assisted by attorneys from Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a Christian conservative legal organization, in filing this litigation.

In January, a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia upheld the law, ruling that the state legislature’s definition of “girl” and “woman” in the context of HB 3293, the “Save Women’s Sports Act,” is “constitutionally permissible” and that the law complies with Title IX.

Title IX was signed into law on June 23, 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other education program that receives funding from the federal government.

Morrisey said the law protects female athletes’ safety and keeps female sports competitive for female athletes, consistent with Title IX and the Constitution.

Jackson’s legal team won a ruling from the lower court blocking enforcement of the law pending final resolution of the case. In February 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals and the Fourth Circuit blocked the state’s effort to kick Jackson off the team as her legal team appealed the lower court’s subsequent ruling upholding the 2021 law.

In August of this year, the Fourth Circuit reinstated a preliminary injunction that allowed Jackson to continue participating on girls’ sports teams until it rules on her appeal.

The Attorney General’s Office contends that Title IX doesn’t mention transgender status. Instead, the marker is biological sex, which recognizes that there are distinct differences between males and females. Further, Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of biological sex, not gender identity.

“Look, I’m very hopeful that we’re going to prevail on the Fourth Circuit,” Morrisey said in a recorded statement. “I think we’re absolutely correct on the law. The district court got it right. And to us, it’s a matter of basic fairness and common sense that biological males should not be playing sports with women. We submitted 3,000 pages; 500 docket entries. This should be so straightforward. I’m hopeful the Fourth Circuit sees our way after these arguments.”

West Virginia is one of 23 states that have banned transgender girls from playing on girls’ teams in the last three years.

Nursing Workforce Challenges And ‘Us & Them’ Explores America’s Transgender Athlete Laws On This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, as part of our continuing series on West Virginia’s workforce, we look at the demands for nurses, during the pandemic and now. Emily Rice brings us this story.

On this West Virginia Morning, as part of our continuing series on West Virginia’s workforce, we look at the demands for nurses, during the pandemic and now. Emily Rice brings us this story.

Also, in this show, West Virginia University’s Board of Governors met Tuesday to receive updates on the university’s proposed cuts to programs and faculty. Chris Schulz has more.

And, in at least 20 states, including West Virginia, there are laws banning transgender girls and women from competing on girls and women’s sports teams. On the next episode of Us & Them, host Trey Kay looks at the battle over gender and sports.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Concord University and Shepherd University.

Eric Douglas is our news director and produced this episode.

Teresa Wills is our host.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning