Once again, trans girls’ access to play sports is under attack. This time, attorney generals from 24 different states have filed an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to ban transgender girls from playing sports.
The brief, led by Steve Marshall of Alabama and Tim Griffin of Arkansas, requests that the Supreme Court review and overturn the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ unanimous 3-0 decision in September to allow trans girls to play on women’s sports teams. The injunction was against Arizona’s 2022 “Save Women’s Sports Act,” a law claimed to protect women in universities and schools from “unfair competition,” citing that transgender women have significant physical advantages over cisgender women.
However, it required student-athletes to play on teams that aligned with their sex assigned at birth and enacted a blanket ban on transgender girls in girls’ sports, regardless of whether or not they were on puberty blockers. The Ninth Circuit Court judges called this law “the essence of discrimination.” The plaintiffs in the case were two trans girls in Arizona, an 11-year-old soccer player and a 15-year-old swimmer and volleyball player, and their parents.
The other 24 states that supported the brief include Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming.
It is unclear whether any of the arguments in the brief will actually hold up in court, but the anti-trans message is clear. The Supreme Court has given no public indication of whether it will take this case.
It continues to be the case that there is no substantial evidence that transgender girls have a significant biological advantage in sports. Some evidence actually suggests that gender-affirming hormone therapy puts transgender athletes at a disadvantage compared to their cisgender counterparts. In a study of transgender women athlete participation in elite sport, it was found that testosterone levels do not have a direct correlation to athletic performance or overall athleticism.
According to Anna Baeth, director of research with Athlete Ally, “The science is murky when it comes to specific hormones like testosterone and trans women athletes—primarily because no study, until this one, have examined trained athletes who identify as transgender.
“What does remain clear is that there are hundreds of factors that impact athletic performance, especially social ones,” Baeth continues. “If governing bodies are serious about creating better and more opportunities for women, their focus should be on the numerous, proven research which consistently finds unequal treatment of women’s sports in participation opportunities, funding and resources, access to facilities and infrastructure, and media coverage.”
