The Supreme Court Won’t End the Debate Over Trans Girls in Sports
Is there a middle ground in the debate over transgender girls’ participation in girls’ sports?
Photographer: Heather Diehl/Getty Images
From the oral argument on Tuesday, it seems clear that the Supreme Court will likely uphold state laws that prohibit transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports, even if the transgender girls have taken puberty blockers that reduce their testosterone levels to the point where they would not have a physiological advantage.
The arguments in the two cases from Idaho and West Virginia — Little v. Hecox and West Virginia v. B.P.J. — were exceedingly technical, even by Supreme Court standards. But beneath the arcane legal jargon, it was possible to see the justices grappling with a fundamental question: Given that we separate sports by sex to ensure that girls can compete and win, should transgender girls be permitted to participate in girls’ sports?