Federal courts rule in favor of transgender-identifying athletes in two states

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CNA Staff, Aug 20, 2024 / 15:36 pm (CNA).

Two federal judges in separate states have ruled against school policies that prohibit students from joining teams of the opposite sex, forcing school officials to allow boys who identify as girls to compete on girls’ teams. 

New Hampshire District Judge Landya McCafferty in an order Monday said that state education officials were forbidden from enforcing the state’s Fairness In Women’s Sports Act as a lawsuit over the law plays out. 

That rule stipulates that women’s sports teams “shall not be open to students of the male sex.” The Boston-based group GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders had brought suit against the measure, arguing that the law is discriminatory toward boys who identify as female and that the statute is “in violation of federal law and constitutional guarantees of equal protection.”

McCafferty said in her ruling that school officials must allow the young male plaintiff “to try out for, practice with, compete with, and play on the school sports teams designated for girls on the same terms and conditions as other girls.”

The judge’s ruling is a temporary restraining order; it will expire after a court hearing later this month, at which the court will decide whether to enact a more substantive temporary injunction. 

In Virginia, meanwhile, a district court ruled in favor of a transgender-identifying student, blocking a Hanover County school rule that forbids students from playing on teams of the opposite sex.

The school district’s policy, adopted from model policies put forth by the Virginia governor’s office last year, says that “for any school programs, events, or activities (including extracurricular activities) that are separated by biological sex, the appropriate participation of students will be determined by biological sex rather than gender or gender identity.”

The student, identified as “Janie Doe” in court documents, brought suit against the rule with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Virginia. 

In the ruling last week, District Judge M. Hannah Lauck forbade the Hanover district from enforcing that rule “and any other law, custom, or policy that prohibits Janie Doe’s participation on [his] middle school’s girls’ tennis team.”

The order will hold “while the case pends,” the judge said. 

The ACLU praised the Virginia decision, calling it “a flashing red light” to school boards across the state. 

Transgender advocates have suffered significant court losses elsewhere in recent months. 

The Biden administration’s expansion of Title IX regulations to offer protection to men in women’s sports, educational programs, and school bathrooms has been blocked in half of the states in the country. The new rules are under temporary injunctions as the litigation plays out in courts. 

The Supreme Court last week, meanwhile, rejected the Biden administration’s request to partially enforce the new Title IX rules, allowing the regulations to be blocked in their entirety as the lawsuits work their way through the courts.

The Texas Supreme Court in June upheld a state ban on performing transgender procedures on minors, ruling that the state is within its authority to outlaw such medical treatments for young boys and girls.