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Five middle school athletes in West Virginia are leading the way in protecting women’s sports. 

The thirteen and fourteen girls refused to compete against a male student, Becky Pepper-Jackson. Jackson won a victory in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Tuesday. The court ruled that a West Virginia law that bars biological boys from competing on girls’ sports teams cannot be enforced on the 13-year-old trans athlete who competes on the girls’ track and field team. 

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“The defendants cannot expect that [this athlete] will countermand her social transition, her medical treatment, and all the work she has done with her schools, teachers, and coaches for nearly half her life by introducing herself to teammates, coaches, and even opponents as a boy,” Judge Toby Heytens wrote in his decision, according to the Associated Press.

It’s important to note that this ruling does not impact the West Virginia law – it only applies to the individual in this particular case, since the individual began transitioning in third grade, prior to hitting puberty. However, the ruling potentially paves the way for similar cases.

During Thursday’s meet, five girls “stepped out” during the competition to protest the inclusion of a trans athlete, the one who is at the center of the court’s ruling. 

I don’t often think of Biblical verses as I write political and cultural posts. I couldn’t help but include the quote from Isiah in this post, though. The question all along has been what will shut down this nonsense? Normalizing males competing against females in women’s sports will destroy women’s sports and all the opportunities that they provide to student-athletes. Middle-schoolers are not young children but they are still young as it relates to their lives. Why has it fallen to 13 and 14-year-old girls to shut down a sports meet that is unfairly stacked against them? 

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This was a very brave move on their part. Middle school girls are often plagued by insecurity and a deep desire to fit in, to not make waves. In this case, these girls had to draw attention to themselves as the ones fighting the fight that has to be fought. I hope they had the support of their parents and that is what gave them the courage to demand a return to sanity. I wonder if the parents are actively supporting their daughters at school board meetings and other public forums. 

The coach was following the court’s ruling. Hopefully, the coach has a moral compass and speaks out, too, on behalf of the girls. 

One of the girls who stepped out said that the trans athlete won the shot put event during the championships. Shocker. 

Pepper-Jackson has identified as female for five years, the court noted. He has participated in girls’ sports since elementary school. His birth certificate identifies him as a female. He takes puberty blockers, which the court said was key to its decision. 

Pepper-Jackson “has never felt the effects of increased levels of circulating testosterone,” so “the fact that those who do benefit from increased strength and speed provides no justification — much less a substantial one — for excluding [her] from the girls cross country and track teams,” the judges wrote. To force her to play on a boys’ team or not play at all “would expose [her] to the same risk of unfair competition — and, in some sports, physical danger — from which the defendants claim to be shielding cisgender girls,” the court said, as she would be “sharing the field with boys who are larger, stronger, and faster than her because of the elevated levels of circulating testosterone she lacks.”

Requiring her to do that violates federal civil rights law, the court said. That does not mean that “we do not hold that government officials are forbidden from creating separate sports teams for boys and girls or that they lack power to police the line drawn between those teams,” the judges added. Nor does it mean that federal law “requires schools to allow every transgender girl to play on girls teams, regardless of whether they have gone through puberty and experienced elevated levels of circulating testosterone.” Only in Pepper-Jackson’s “particular case” is the ban discriminatory, it said.

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The ruling seems to provide an opportunity for a separate division for trans athletes. That is what should happen. Trans athletes can compete but it must be against each other. That is the way forward. 

The youngest of competitors is speaking out. Children are leading the way for adults. This is the upside-down world in which we live. Let’s hope the message is received.