The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled states can ban transgender girls and women from competing in women’s school sports, delivering a devastating defeat to trans students who had asked the justices to let them participate in public school life as themselves.
BREAKING: The Supreme Court has upheld state laws barring transgender girls and women from participating in girls’ and women’s competitive sports.
The 6-3 decision came from Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
Read more: https://t.co/0xNgwI1BVd pic.twitter.com/qghylrIdIH
— ABC News (@ABC) June 30, 2026
More from The Advocate:
In a 6-3 decision written by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the court ruled that Idaho and West Virginia’s laws do not violate the Equal Protection Clause or Title IX.
The cases, Little v. Hecox and West Virginia v. B.P.J., centered on two transgender students: Lindsay Hecox, who sought to run track and cross country at Boise State University, and Becky Pepper-Jackson, a West Virginia girl who wanted to compete on girls’ teams at school.
The majority rejected arguments that the laws discriminate against transgender students, relying on the court’s recent decision in United States v. Skrmetti to say the bans classify students by sex, not by gender identity or transgender status.
Writing for the majority, Kavanaugh said the court would not require states or schools to make athlete-by-athlete determinations about whether a transgender girl who has taken puberty blockers or hormones has retained any athletic advantage.
For years, conservative lawmakers have positioned transgender girls’ participation in sports as an “emergency” even as the number of students affected remains small.
And it’s worth noting that practically every case of trans girls/women playing in women’s sports have their own specificities.
The argument put before SCOTUS was that “male athletes have numerous recognized physical and physiological advantages over females that begin before puberty and persist despite reduced circulating testosterone.”
But one of today’s plaintiffs, Becky Pepper-Jackson, transitioned very early and never went through testosterone-driven puberty. So no “male advantage” ever developed in her physiology.
It goes without saying that this was never about who gets to run a race or join a team. It was about whether trans people can be carved out of public life by category.
This issue is dead for many years to come and hopefully can no longer be used as a wedge issue. We need to redouble efforts against conversion therapy and in favor of providing care and support for trans kids.
In 2025, The Advocate looked into what science has to say about any “advantage” trans women might (or might not) have over cisgender women in sports.
No, trans women don’t have inherent advantage over cis women in sports: new study https://t.co/8FCC5NMCRZ
— The Advocate (@TheAdvocateMag) June 30, 2026
Discover more from The Randy Report
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.