How the US supreme court case on trans athletes could unravel LGBTQ+ rights

[Jessica_Rose ✅]

How the US supreme court case on trans athletes could unravel LGBTQ+ rights

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/12/trans-athletes-supreme-court-lgbtq-rights?fbclid=IwY2xjawPUa51leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFVSEkxRmxSUllPenZocWdhc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHsxfK-gInSMD7IMUw3PPg41ih-gpU4k3dFF348FyljMKQJgMidtKNoZJ9rid_aem_mWGjnZR96oGJAngSPIWsog 🔗

Sam Levin (12 Jan 2026)

If the court were to use the sports cases to rule that laws targeting trans people do not warrant heightened scrutiny, then "any type of law discriminating against trans people is going to be presumptively constitutional", said Joshua Block, senior counsel for the LGBTQ and HIV projects at the ACLU, which is representing both students.

"These laws were passed to establish a legal principle that transgender girls and women shouldn't be treated like other girls and women, and then to use that principle as a jumping-off point for rolling back protections for transgender people more generally," said Block, who is presenting oral arguments.

At least one prominent campaigner for trans sports bans has made this point explicitly, saying last year: "The gender ideology movement is a house of cards, and I believe it's lying on that sports issue. This will be the card that makes all of it crumble."

Scott Skinner-Thompson, a Colorado law school professor, said he feared the ruling could leave trans people with "minimal constitutional protections" from laws explicitly targeting them: "That would further embolden legislators to continue to pass laws that exclude transgender people from public life."