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Super Bowl-winning head coach Barry Switzer and 31 Olympians have signed an amicus brief in support of the legal defense to “save women’s sports” ahead of two upcoming Supreme Court cases over trans athletes. The signees also include 12 Olympic medalists, including eight gold medalists.
Switzer, women’s tennis legend Martina Navratilova, Olympic gold medalists Kerri Walsh-Jennings, Summer Sanders, Donna de Varona, Nancy Hogshead, Laura Wilkinson, Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson, Monique Lamoureux-Morando, and Rhi Jeffrey, and former NFL quarterback Steve Stenstrom are among the top sports figures who signed the brief.
The signees also include multiple female athletes who have had to compete against biological male trans athletes, including fencer Stephanie Turner, former NCAA volleyball player Macy Petty, former University of Pennsylvania women’s swimmer Monika Burzynska, and U.S. Masters swimmers Wendy Enderle, Cissy Cochran and Angie Griffin.
The brief has a total of 124 signatures, which also includes the family members of athletes who signed.
The brief argues that state laws in Idaho and West Virginia that protect women’s sports from trans athletes also protect women and girls from mental and physical harm.
“By ruling in favor of West Virginia’s and Idaho’s laws, this Court can reaffirm that women should not lose their equal opportunity to compete in sports on a level playing field. By affirming the states’ right to stand with women and girls, this Court can ensure that females’ basic right to be treated equally is still the legal norm in the United States,” the brief reads.
“It is hard to express the pain, humiliation, frustration, and shame women experience when they are forced to compete against males in sport. It is public shaming and suffering, an exclusion from women’s own category – a place that uniquely belongs to them… The shame does not disappear after competition is over. It stays forever as a memory of sanctioned public ridicule… The psychological, tangible, and long-term harm suffered by females forced to compete against males is irreversible.”
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On the other side, 130 congressional Democrats signed an amicus brief supporting the trans athlete plaintiffs in the two cases.
The coalition, which includes nine senators and 121 House members, is led by Congressional Equality Caucus Co-Chair Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., Democratic Women’s Caucus Chair Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández, D-N.M., and Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii.
The list of signees features prominent figures on the party’s left wing, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. The list also includes House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Rep. Nancy Pelosi. The list does not include noted moderate Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., or Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
What to know about the two cases
The Little vs. Hecox and West Virginia vs. BPJ cases were each initially legal wins that enabled biological males to bypass their state’s laws to compete against females. But now that the cases will be heard by the Supreme Court, a decision could have a wide-ranging impact on the legality of trans athletes in women’s sports going forward.
The cases are set for oral arguments on Jan. 13 in Washington, D.C.
The Little vs. Hecox lawsuit was initially filed by trans athlete Lindsay Hecox in 2020, when the athlete wanted to join the women’s cross-country team at Boise State and had the state’s law to prevent trans athletes from competing in women’s sports blocked.
Hecox was joined by an anonymous biological female student, Jane Doe, who was concerned about the potential of being subjected to the sex dispute verification process. The challenge was successful when a federal judge blocked Idaho’s state law.
A 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel upheld an injunction blocking the state law in 2023, before the Supreme Court agreed in July to hear the case. Hecox then asked the court last month to drop the challenge, claiming the athlete “has therefore decided to permanently withdraw and refrain from playing any women’s sports at BSU or in Idaho.”
Hecox tried to have the case dismissed in September after the Supreme Court agreed in July to hear the case, but U.S. District Judge David Nye, appointed by President Donald Trump in 2017, rejected Hecox’s motion to dismiss the case.
The West Virginia vs. B.P.J. lawsuit was brought against the state of West Virginia by trans athlete Becky Pepper-Jackson, who was initially granted a preliminary injunction allowing the athlete to participate on the school’s sports teams. The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the law violated Title IX and the equal protection clause. Now the Supreme Court has agreed to hear the state’s appeal.
In a response brief, the athlete’s mother, Heather Jackson, argued West Virginia’s law that prohibits transgender athletes from competing in women’s sports violates Title IX.
However, Title IX does not explicitly protect the right of biologically male transgender people to identify as women. The Trump administration and West Virginia state government do not interpret Title IX as protective of that right.
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