West Virginia must pause its enforcement of a new law that prohibits transgender women and girls from participating in public school sports, a federal judge ruled Wednesday, allowing the plaintiff in the lawsuit to sign up for her school’s girls’ cross-country and track teams while the challenge awaits a final decision.
In a 15-page preliminary injunction, District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin handed a temporary win to 11-year-old Becky Pepper-Jackson, a transgender athlete who, with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union of West Virginia, LGBTQ advocacy group Lambda Legal and Cooley LLP, sued the state in May over its sports ban. Becky is referred to in the lawsuit as B.P.J., but is named and quoted in ACLU news releases.
“At this point, I have been provided with scant evidence that this law addresses any problem at all, let alone an important problem,” Goodwin wrote in his ruling.
The decision means West Virginia must stop enforcing the ban, which went into effect earlier this month, while the lawsuit awaits a final ruling.
