Transgender youth and athletes are going to battle in a number of states across the country challenging laws that ban their ability to participate in female sports, readying the issue for Supreme Court review in the near future.
The battle over transgender athletes has even made its way into the California governor’s race with Caitlyn Jenner, a Republican looking to oust Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom, called it a “non-issue” on Fox.
“Trans women who are truly trans, who at a very young age started proper medical treatment, they’ve grown up as girls, of course they should be able to compete in girls’ sports. But some guy who hasn’t done any therapy, hasn’t done anything, there has to be a review board,” Ms. Jenner said.
“I would be the first governor to put together a review board to review each case,” she added. “Such a small issue. It’s like a non-issue that’s out there. I would be surprised if there are 30 trans athletes in the entire state.”
But transgender activists say Republican states enacting laws banning transgenders from competing in sports according to their gender identification are discriminatory — and will likely be debated before the high court.
“Wherever these discriminatory laws show up, we are ready to take these states to court. We have made it abundantly clear to lawmakers around the country that if states passed these hateful laws, we would challenge them in order to make sure that kids who are transgender have the same opportunity to play sports as any other child,” said Avatara Smith-Carrington, a fellow at Lambda Legal, an LGBT legal group. “These issues could easily find themselves before the Supreme Court.”
Idaho was the first state to ban transgender athletes. A legal battle over the state law is pending at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals after a cisgender athlete challenged the policy. A federal judge issued an injunction, halting it from taking effect as the case is litigated.
Liberal advocacy groups are also representing an 11-year-old transgender girl in West Virginia, who wanted to try out for the girl’s cross country team. She filed a lawsuit this week challenging that state’s ban on transgender individuals from competing in women’s sports.
“I just want to run, I come from a family of runners,” said Becky Pepper-Jackson, the 11- year-old. “I know how hurtful a law like this is to all kids like me who just want to play sports with their classmates, and I’m doing this for them. Trans kids deserve better.”
Defenders of the state laws say biological boys and men have an advantage when competing in girls’ and women’s sports.
Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal group, is representing four biological females in Connecticut who have challenged the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference over its policy to allow biological males who identify as females compete in women’s sports.
The girls lost in lower court but took their case to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday.
“All female athletes deserve access to fair competition; that means authentically equal opportunities to compete, achieve, and win. But competition is no longer fair when males are permitted to compete in girls’ sports,” said ADF Legal Counsel Christiana Holcomb, legal counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom. “Males will always have inherent physical advantages over comparably talented and trained girls.”
Tennessee, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, and Montana have also banned transgender athletes from competing in girl’s athletics.
Transgender youth also launched a legal battle to access medical services — not just athletics.
On Tuesday, a group of transgender youth and doctors in Arkansas sued in federal court over a state law that bans medical treatment and gender transitioning surgery for anyone under the age of 18, asking a federal court to block the “cruel” law from being enforced.
Arkansas became this year the first state to pass a law — over the governor’s veto — banning youth from receiving gender transitioning hormone treatment. Since then, Tennessee has passed a law banning youth from receiving hormone treatment for gender transitioning.
The Arkansas law also allows private insurance providers to deny coverage for gender transitioning treatment to individuals of all ages.
It goes into effect Jan. 28 unless a court issues an injunction, which transgender youth and medical providers requested this week, saying the ban runs afoul of their constitutional rights.
“This law would be devastating to trans youth and their families, forcing many to uproot their lives and leave the state to access the gender-affirming care they need,” said Holly Dickson, director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arkansas, which is representing the youth. “No child should be cut off from the medical care they need or denied their fundamental right to be themselves — but this law would do both. We’re suing to stop this cruel and unconstitutional law from taking effect.”
The lawsuit was brought on behalf of four transgender youth and two pediatricians. One of the children, Brooke Dennis, is 9 years old. According to the lawsuit, she wants to begin gender transitioning treatment when she hits puberty but the new state law would infringe on her ability to receive the treatment.
“Our child has known exactly who she is since she was 2 years old,” said Amanda Dennis, who is Brooke’s mom. “She was a happy child and felt comfortable expressing herself but when she began to feel pressure at school to pretend she is a boy, she began to really struggle. It was painful to watch our child in distress. Last year, when she told us she is a girl and would like to be called ’Brooke’ and referred to using she and her pronouns, we supported her immediately and the cloud of sadness lifted and her smile came back.”
According to the ACLU, the Dennis family may move out of state if the law goes into effect.
The Arkansas law was passed in April, but Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson vetoed the bill, saying it was too broad. The legislature overrode his veto, which prompted the ACLU’s lawsuit.
Republican lawmakers said the law is necessary to protect children.
“They need to get to be 18 before they make those decisions,” said Republican state Rep. Robin Lundstrum.
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, a Republican, told The Associated Press she would aggressively defend the law.
“I won’t sit idly by while radical groups such as the ACLU use our children as pawns for their own social agenda,” Ms. Rutledge said.
• Alex Swoyer can be reached at aswoyer@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.