An Update on Transgender Athletes in Sports

Transgender athletes have been participating in sports, including on the teams that match their gender identity, for decades. In recent years, anti-trans activists have largely given up on battles over restrooms and are instead attacking transgender student athletes.

Here is an overview of the current legal and policy landscape and the ACLU’s work to aid in your reporting related to a hearing set for July 22 in Idaho.

Idaho
In 2020, 17 states introduced legislation that would ban transgender students from participating in school sports. On March 30, 2020, Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed into law the only ban on transgender student athletes in the U.S. Outside of Idaho, policies about participation in school sports for transgender students are generally decided by state activities associations at the K-12 level and NCAA at the collegiate level. No state, athletic association or the NCAA completely ban women and girls who are transgender from participating in women’s sports. Idaho’s anti-trans law, in fact, directly contradicts the standards set by the NCAA for participation of trans student athletes that govern collegiate sports across the country.

The ACLU, along with Legal Voice, ACLU of Idaho, and Cooley LLP, sued the state of Idaho on behalf of Lindsay Hecox, a Boise State student who would be banned from the women’s track team because she is transgender, along with Jane Doe, a cisgender high school student who could be subjected to invasive medical screenings under HB 500. Doctors, academics and sports psychologists have served as experts in the case in opposition to HB 500.

A hearing in this case will be held on July 22, which is also National Youth Sports Day. The hearing will cover three main topics:

Whether the federal court should issue a preliminary injunction halting enforcement of the new law before the fall sports season.
Whether the court should dismiss the lawsuit.
Whether two Idaho State University student-athletes, represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, can intervene in the case as parties to the lawsuit to argue in favor of the law.