State laws prohibiting transgender athletes from playing on women’s and girls’ sports teams were ruled constitutional by the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
Title IX allows schools to provide separate sports teams for boys and girls, as defined by biological sex, Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in the court’s 6-3 decision in West Virginia v. B.P.J. The ruling, however, does not create a blanket, federal ban on transgender athletes in women’s and girls’ sports.
“The legislatures and the schools are better equipped—and under the Constitution, are the more appropriate entities—to assess the competing medical and scientific considerations and draw appropriate lines,” Kavanaugh wrote.
In the past six years, 27 states have passed laws that allow only biological females to play women’s and girls’ sports. Kavanaugh’s opinion contends that the participation of transgender athletes can deter women and girls from playing sports.
But the LGBTQ+ advocacy organization GLAAD cites research that shows more girls play sports in states that permit transgender participation.
National Education Association President Becky Pringle blasted the decision, saying it ignores the voices of educators “who understand the value of access to school sports and the importance of inclusion and belonging.”
“This decision will inflict real, lasting harm not only on transgender student-athletes, who are already marginalized and vulnerable to bullying and violence, but students of all genders,” Pringle said in a statement.
“It will subject cisgender girls and women to invasive gender-policing and scrutiny,” she added. “And it will enable politicians to erect new barriers that prevent every student from having equal opportunity in education, as our country’s civil rights laws have long mandated.”
U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said the ruling secures “equal educational opportunities for women and girls.”
“Today’s ruling affirms the common-sense right of states to prohibit men from competing in women’s sports, safeguard the integrity of female spaces, and ensure no woman faces discrimination on the basis of sex,” McMahon said in a statement.
This story will be updated.
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