Thursday, a federal appeals court backed a ruling that stopped Idaho from becoming the first state to ban transgender athletes from playing girls’ and women’s sports. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals supported a judge’s preliminary order against the 2020 law. This law would make it illegal for transgender women and girls to play on female sports teams at public schools, colleges, and universities. The judges decided that the ban is unfair to all women, not just transgender women. They did this by pointing to a part of the law that says anyone in Idaho can question the sex of a female student athlete. Under that rule, the athlete would have to go through medical tests, such as gynecological checks, to prove their gender.
The court said that the law “perpetuates historical discrimination against both cisgender and transgender women by categorically excluding transgender women from athletic competition and subjecting all women to an invasive sex dispute verification process.” The decision comes after a historic wave of new state laws that limit the rights of transgender people, especially transgender teens. Since Idaho’s law, more than 20 other states have passed similar limits on sports. On Wednesday, Republican lawmakers in North Carolina passed the latest sports restriction, defeating Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of that bill and two other bills that would have hurt transgender youth’s rights.
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ACLU Vows Continued Fight Against Bans Targeting Transgender Youth
“Idaho’s ban and others like it are meant to make transgender people feel isolated and ashamed, and we won’t stop fighting until all transgender youth are given the fair chance they deserve,” said Chase Strangio, the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project’s deputy director for transgender justice. Lindsay Hecox is a transgender student at Boise State University who wanted to try out for cross country and play club soccer. The ACLU fought against the ban on her behalf. A high school player who was not transgender also fought against the rule because it required “sex verification” tests. In 2020, a federal judge put a stop to the rule. Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed the bill into law, even though legal experts said it was unlikely to stand up in court. It was passed by Idaho Republicans during the 2020 state legislature session. The office of Little and the office of the state attorney general did not answer right away to texts Thursday afternoon.
Supporters of the bans have said that they are needed to give everyone a fair chance and to make sure that female sports can still get grants. But the Idaho appeals court said there was no proof that a transgender woman got a grant for sports over a straight woman. In April, the Biden administration released a suggested rule that would make it illegal for schools to ban transgender sports outright. However, teams would still be able to set some limits in some situations. Conservatives are very angry about the idea. But it also upsets people who believe in trans rights because it would stop some transgender sports from participating.
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Source: ABCNews
