Court rules trans pupils can compete in girls’ sports

Becky Pepper-Jackson, 12, will be allowed to keep running with her middle school female classmates for the time being.

Becky Pepper-Jackson runs on the girls’ cross country and track teams at a middle school in Bridgeport, West Virginia. Picture: AFP

The US Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that a West Virginia ban on transgender girls participating on female sports teams would not go into effect while a suit over the matter makes its way through the US court system.

The plaintiff, 12-year-old trans student Becky Pepper-Jackson, will be allowed to keep running with her middle school female classmates for the time being, following a seven-to-two vote by the top court’s judges, in a decision that did not address the merits of the case.

The court’s two most conservative judges, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, disagreed with the decision.

Pepper-Jackson, a cross country and middle distance runner on the track, first sued in 2021 to block a West Virginia law that prevented students from joining their schools’ female competitions if their biological gender at birth was male. After several twists and turns, a federal appeals court in February froze implementation of the law pending her appeal.

Then in March, the state, backed by the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom, asked the Supreme Court to overturn the appeals court’s stay. “Biological differences between males and females matter in sports,” they argued.

Becky, who is undergoing puberty-blocking treatment, has competed on her school’s girls’ team for multiple seasons “without incident”, her lawyers said. “Despite regularly finishing near the back of the pack, she has reaped the benefits of school sports: her mother has ‘never seen [her] happier’,” they said in an appeals court filing.

On Thursday, the American Civil Liberties Union welcomed the decision, stating: “We are grateful that the Supreme Court today acknowledged that there was no emergency and that Becky should be allowed to continue to participate with her teammates on her middle school track team.” It added that blocking her from team sports was “baseless and cruel”.

Trans people in sport has become a heated political issue, with religious conservatives especially fighting against their inclusion on girls’ teams.

The Supreme Court has so far avoided becoming involved, except on one occasion: In 2020, it ruled against a funeral home that had fired a transgender employee who underwent a gender transition.

AFP