School districts in the Inland Empire and Orange County on Friday submitted documents to the U.S. Supreme Court in support of West Virginia laws prohibiting transgender students from being on girls sports teams.
The Chino Valley, Temecula and Murrieta Valley unified school districts, the Perris and Placer union high school districts, the Orange County and Kern County boards of education along with charter school John Adams Academies filed an amicus curie brief that calls for the nation’s highest court to take legal protections away from transgender athletes.
“For nearly forty years Title IX allowed female athletes to thrive in their own competitions and protected girls in their locker rooms and bathrooms,” Erin Mersino, vice president of the Advocates for Faith & Freedom, which represents the coalition of school districts.
“Title IX was a hard-won victory for women’s equality, built on recognizing sex-based differences — not erasing them,” Mersino added. “Our clients have bravely asked the Supreme Court to uphold the original meaning of Title IX and protect the rights of their female students.”
West Virginia authorities, now supported by Southern California school districts, have asked justices to reverse a Fourth Circuit Appeals Court decision earlier this year.
“The districts argue that expanding ‘sex’ under Title IX to include gender identity ignores biological realities, endangering female students’ physical safety, psychological well-being, and equal opportunities,” according to the school districts’ attorneys.
The districts argue that historical and scientific evidence “exposes the harsh realities female students face when required to share spaces with male students, including psychological trauma — such as embarrassment, withdrawal, and fear — as well as physical risks and undeniable athletic disadvantages.”
California school districts are in a “legal bind” — either comply with California law’s gender-identity mandates that the districts say violate federal Title IX protections or face lawsuits and from the state for noncompliance, according to to the.
The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments in the case, called W. Virginia State Board of Education v. B.P.J. by Jackson, in the court’s current term. The school district coalition hopes the Supreme Court will “restore Title IX’s original intent: equal opportunity rooted in reality, not fantasy,” attorneys said.
The federal Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on April 16 blocked a West Virginia law that banned transgender students from being on sports teams consistent with their female gender identity, finding the law violated the rights of Becky Pepper Jackson, a 13-year-old transgender girl and middle-school track athlete.
Judge Toby Heytens wrote, “Offering B.P.J. a ‘choice’ between not participating in sports and participating only on boys teams is no real choice at all. The defendants cannot expect that B.P.J. 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.”
The American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal filed the lawsuit on the student’s behalf.
“This is a tremendous victory for our client, transgender West Virginians, and the freedom of all youth to play as who they are, ACLU attorney Joshua Block said in a statement. “It also continues a string of federal courts ruling against bans on the participation of transgender athletes and in favor of their equal participation as the gender they know themselves to be. This case is fundamentally about the equality of transgender youth in our schools and our communities and we’re thankful the Fourth Circuit agreed.”
The California school districts’ amicus brief is available at faith-freedom.com.
The appeals court decision is also available online from Lambda Legal.
