A recently passed Idaho law banning transgender women from competing in women’s sports — the first such law in the nation — on Friday received backing from US President Donald Trump’s administration.
The support came in the form of a court filing submitted by the US Department of Justice, saying that a federal judge considering a lawsuit challenging the ban should conclude that the law does not contravene the country’s constitution.
The ban prohibits transgender students who identify as female from playing on female teams sponsored by public schools, colleges and universities. The ban does not apply to men’s teams.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and women’s rights group Legal Voice, which filed the lawsuit in April, contend that the law contravenes the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause because it is discriminatory.
The Justice Department wrote: “The Equal Protection Clause does not require states to abandon their efforts to provide biological women with equal opportunity to compete for, and enjoy the life-long benefits that flow from, participation in school athletics in order to accommodate the team preferences of transgender athletes.”
Idaho Governor Brad Little on March 30 signed into law the measure that received overwhelming support by the mostly Republican lawmakers of the Idaho House and Senate, but was unanimously opposed by Democratic lawmakers. It takes effect on July 1, although the lawsuit seeks a preliminary injunction to prevent that.
ACLU of Idaho legal director Ritchie Eppink said that the arguments in the Justice Department filing are anti-transgender arguments that have been used for years and will ultimately fail.
“The Trump administration has been attacking trans folks in the United States since basically inauguration day,” he said. “It’s not surprising they made this a part of their anti-trans agenda as well.”
Two plaintiffs are bringing the lawsuit. One is an unnamed Boise-area high-school student who is cisgender. Cisgender refers to someone whose gender identity corresponds with the sex that the person was identified as having at birth.
The other is Lindsay Hecox, who will be a sophomore this fall at Boise State University and hopes to qualify for the women’s cross-country team. She competed on the boys’ team at a Moorpark, California, high school before transitioning after graduating.
The NCAA has a policy allowing transgender athletes to compete, but the sponsor of the Idaho law, Legislator Barbara Ehardt, has called the NCAA policy “permissive.”
Ehardt has said that allowing transgender athletes on girls’ and women’s teams would negate nearly 50 years of progress women have made since the landmark 1972 Title IX federal legislation credited with opening up sports to female athletes plus scholarships and other opportunities.
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