NWLC on Supreme Court Taking up Trans Student Athlete Ban

WASHINGTON (July 3, 2025) — The Supreme Court today agreed to take up the legality of state bans against the participation of transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s sports in local school and college in two cases Little v. Hecox and West Virginia v. B.P.J. 

Shiwali Patel, senior director of safe and inclusive schools at the National Women’s Law Center, released the following statement in response:

“The lower courts were right to block the harmful and blatantly discriminatory state laws at issue prohibiting trans women and girls from playing sports. Laws like these harm all women and girls by inviting gender policing and scrutiny of any woman or girl who doesn’t conform to someone else’s idea of femininity. In fact, one of the laws allows anyone to challenge a girl athlete’s gender and force the student to verify it.

“Aside from subjecting girls to harassment and invasive testing, these bans do not actually protect women and girls. They also don’t solve for resource or funding inequities in women and girls’ sports, or the fact that college women athletes are shortchanged millions of dollars in athletic scholarships compared to college men, or address rampant sexual harassment against athletes by authority figures. 

“Equal protection and access to education mean that all students should be able to play sports and reap the well-documented socioemotional and educational benefits of playing. Excluding a girl because she is trans is never fair — it’s unlawful and undermines the rights of all women and girls.”