Transgender athletes have been the object of scrutiny for years. Conservative lawmakers have fought on both the state and federal levels to ban trans women from participating in women’s sports — and to the detriment of trans folks and allies around the country, those lawmakers just won big. On Tuesday, June 30, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld state laws that ban transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports. So, what does that mean for the future of trans women in sports, especially college athletes?Â
In a divided 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court ruled against two transgender students, Becky Pepper-Jackson and Lindsay Hecox, who spoke out against anti-trans laws in West Virginia and Idaho, respectively. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who wrote the majority opinion, wrote that the laws do not violate the 14th Amendment, which says that law must apply evenly to everyone, or Title IX, which prohibits discrimination based on gender in education.Â
It’s important to remember that a SCOTUS ruling isn’t about just the case at hand; it’s about setting a precedent for how other cases of similar nature will be ruled. With this new ruling in place, there is now a federal framework for excluding transgender athletes across the country.
What College students should know about SCOTUS’S Trans Athlete Ruling
For college athletes, this means that state laws requiring participation in sports to be based on biological sex can legally exclude transgender women athletes from women’s divisions. However, whether you’ll see this change in action on campus depends on where your specific college is located. If students go to school in a state without any state bans on trans sports participation, trans athletes might not notice a difference (at least at their school) and could continue to participate in sports according to their gender identity. But for trans athletes in one of the 27 states across the U.S. with anti-trans laws in place, this ruling could massively impact their college experience. A trans woman who participated on a women’s team last season might now be forced to participate on the men’s team (regardless of hormone therapy) or not participate at all.Â
Further, this SCOTUS ruling raises questions of whether universities that receive federal funding will need to revise their athletic policies in order to comply with the ruling and if scholarship allocations, recruiting practices, and more need to be altered so as not to threaten any loss of federal funding.
This ruling is the latest blow to LGBTQ+ rights under the Trump administration and the conservative-majority SCOTUS. “This is a heartbreaking ruling for our clients and transgender girls like them who’ve asked for nothing more than the same opportunities afforded to their peers.” Joshua Block, Senior Counsel for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Rights Project, said in a press release about the decision. “The reality is that the equality of transgender women and girls takes nothing away from, and in fact promotes, the equality of all women and girls. We will continue to advance the fundamental principle that all young people deserve equal opportunity to thrive and succeed.”