West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the state to enforce its ban on biological males in female sports, offering the high court its first opportunity to take up the fierce debate over fairness versus inclusion in girls’ and women’s athletics.
Mr. Morrisey said his office would file Thursday an application with the Supreme Court to vacate the temporary injunction on the state’s 2021 Save Women’s Sports Act issued last month by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The appeals court ruled in favor of Becky Pepper-Jackson, a 12-year-old male-born student who identifies as female and wants to compete on the girls’ track team.
“To me, this is a matter of basic fairness,” the Republican Morrisey said at a press conference in Charleston. “I hope that this isn’t going to be a partisan issue. This should be: ‘Let’s find a way to respect women’s sports.’”
His hopes aside, the issue has indeed become fiercely partisan, pitting Republicans advocating for single-sex sports against Democrats who want transgender athletes to be able to participate in scholastic athletics based on their gender identity.
The debate moves next to the U.S. House floor after the GOP-led House Education and the Workforce Committee passed along party lines the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023 after a marathon 16-hour markup session that began Wednesday and wrapped up early Thursday.
“We have seen what happens when biological males are allowed to compete in women’s sports: women are deprived of an equal playing field and stripped of opportunities to succeed in sports to which they dedicated their entire lives,” said committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, North Carolina Republican.
Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal, which represent Becky and Becky’s mother Heather Jackson, blasted Thursday what they called “West Virginia’s latest attack on transgender youth.”
“Becky is a 12-year-old girl who has tried out and been accepted as a member of the girls track team, with no issue from her teammates,” said the groups in a statement. “She has been receiving puberty-delaying medication and gender-affirming hormones. It is unconscionable that the West Virginia Attorney General wants to prevent Becky from participating in sports with her peers.”