Supreme Court will decide next year if states can ban trans kids...

[Jessica_Rose]

Supreme Court will decide next year if states can ban trans kids from participating in school sports

https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2025/07/supreme-court-will-decide-next-year-if-states-can-ban-trans-kids-from-participating-in-school-sports/

John Russell (7 July 2025)

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear two cases that are likely to decide whether state laws banning transgender women and girls from participating in school sports violate the Constitution.

As Them and other outlets reported, the Court announced last Thursday that it would take up Little v. Hecox and West Virginia v. B.P.J. during its next term. Both cases involve transgender students who challenged their states' bans on trans athletes participating in women's and girls' sports.

Becky Pepper-Jackson, the plaintiff in West Virginia v. B.P.J., sued the state in 2021 when she was just 11 years old. Pepper-Jackson had hoped to join her middle school's girls' cross-country team, but was told she couldn't due to H.B. 3293, a.k.a. the "Save Women's Sports Act," a law signed by West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R) in April 2021 that banned transgender girls from participating on teams that align with their gender identity.

"Trans kids play sports for the same reasons their peers do — to learn perseverance, dedication, teamwork, and to simply have fun with their friends," Joshua Block, a lawyer with the ACLU, which is representing both Pepper Jackson and Hecox, said in a statement shared with multiple outlets. "Categorically excluding kids from school sports just because they are transgender will only make our schools less safe and more hurtful places for all youth. We believe the lower courts were right to block these discriminatory laws, and we will continue to defend the freedom of all kids to play."