Author: MD Harris Institute

On 21 July, Judge Joseph Goodwin, of the United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, granted a preliminary injunction against West Virginia’s Save Girls Sports Act, ruling that a middle school aged biological male who identifies as female, Becky Pepper-Jackson, must be allowed to try out for the girls cross country and track teams at her school. He reasoned that the Fourteenth Amendment was intended to provide equal protection under the law for all individuals. This originally applied to equality between races, but Judge Goodwin believes that it should also apply to transgender individuals. He writes,