{"id":5777,"date":"2026-06-30T14:36:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T14:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=5777"},"modified":"2026-06-30T14:36:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T14:36:24","slug":"supreme-court-upholds-bans-on-transgender-women-in-female-athletics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=5777","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court upholds bans on transgender women in female athletics"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ruling is the latest blow to the LGBTQ+ community, which has faced repeated losses at the Supreme Court in recent years. <\/strong><\/p>

Read more Absent congressman returns to Congress after nearly four months<\/a><\/p>\n

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Trans teen athlete Becky Pepper-Jackson outside the Supreme Court in January. (Maxine Wallace\/The Washington Post)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld Idaho\u2019s and West Virginia\u2019s bans on transgender athletes playing on girls\u2019 and women\u2019s sports teams, <\/b>the latest in a string of legal setbacks for the LGBTQ+ community before the high court.<\/p>\n

The ruling is among several in recent terms that are consequential for the LGBTQ+ movement. The Supreme Court in March ruled a Colorado law banning conversion therapy<\/a> for gay and transgender youths probably violated the free speech rights of a religious counselor who wants to counsel such young people according to biblical teachings.<\/p>\n

Earlier that month, the court sided with Christian parents\u2019 in blocking, for now, California policies<\/a> that discourage schools from informing parents of a student\u2019s sexual orientation or gender identity without the student\u2019s consent. Last year, the court upheld bans on gender transition treatment for minors.<\/p>\n

Questions over whether transgender girls and women should play on girls\u2019 and women\u2019s sports teams has been a particular flash point in a broader conversation about transgender rights. Dozens of states have bans amid intense public debate about fairness at all levels of competition.<\/p>\n

The issue came to the high court in a pair of cases, brought separately by Becky Pepper-Jackson<\/a>, a teen from West Virginia, and Lindsay Hecox, a Boise State University student<\/a> in Idaho. Both argued that the bans in their states discriminated on basis of sex and violated the Constitution\u2019s equal protection clause. In January, the justices appeared sympathetic to arguments for keeping the bans in place as the cases were argued<\/a> back-to-back.<\/p>\n

Twenty-seven states have passed laws banning <\/b>transgender student-athletes from competing on women\u2019s or girls\u2019 sports teams. Supporters of the bans say they are necessary to ensure fairness and safety because of inherent physical differences between males and females. Opponents say the laws discriminate against trans people and should be struck down.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump early last year signed an executive order aimed at keeping transgender women out of women\u2019s sports. The administration has argued that there are only two sexes \u2014 male and female \u2014 and that they \u201care not changeable.<\/a>\u201d Soon after the executive order on sports, the NCAA<\/a> and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee<\/a> updated their policies to bar trans women from playing on women\u2019s sports teams. Since then, the administration has aggressively investigated schools<\/a> that allow trans girls to participate in girls\u2019 and women\u2019s sports.<\/p>

Read more Celebrity-backed LAFC sells majority stake in struggling Swiss soccer club Grasshopper<\/a><\/p>\n

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President Donald Trump signs an executive order banning transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports at the White House last year. (Jabin Botsford\/The Washington Post)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Views among Americans on transgender issues are nuanced. A Pew Research Center survey<\/a> published in February 2025 showed <\/b>56 percent of adults support policies aimed at protecting transgender people from discrimination in jobs, housing and public spaces.<\/p>\n

But over the past few years, Americans also have become more supportive of restrictions for transgender people, according to the Pew survey. Fifty-six percent of Americans supported bans on providing gender transition care for minors, up 10 percentage points from 2022, the study found.<\/p>\n

But athletics have always stood out.<\/p>\n

The Pew survey found that 66 percent favored laws that require trans athletes to compete on teams that match their sex assigned at birth, up eight points from 2022. Even before the general shift in public opinion, a majority of Americans opposed allowing trans women to compete against other women at all levels of sports, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The science concerning biological advantages of transgender girls and women in sports is evolving and remains hotly debated. The case<\/a> featured competing evidence about whether transgender girls are inherently better at sports. The transgender plaintiffs presented evidence that transitioning before puberty prevents them from building enough body mass to have an advantage in high school and college sports.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for the states countered with studies that showed that non-transgender boys and men perform better at all ages. The study found that boys between the ages of 7 and 12 ran about 4 percent faster and jumped about 7 percent farther than girls in the same age group.<\/p>\n

. <\/b><\/p>\n

While there\u2019s no comprehensive tally of trans athletes nationally, an estimated 300,100 transgender youths between the ages of 13 and 17 live in the United States, according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law<\/a>. The Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group, has estimated that 14 percent of trans boys and 12 percent of trans girls<\/a> play on a sports team.<\/p>

Read more Live updatesSupreme Court to issue rulings on birthright citizenship, transgender athletes in women\u2019s sports<\/a><\/p>\n

Laura Meckler contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The ruling is the latest blow to the LGBTQ+ community, which has faced repeated losses at the Supreme Court in recent years. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5774,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nSupreme Court upholds bans on transgender women in female athletics - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=5777\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Supreme Court upholds bans on transgender women in female athletics - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The ruling is the latest blow to the LGBTQ+ community, which has faced repeated losses at the Supreme Court in recent years.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=5777\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-30T14:36:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2329a58e85c488ca3b524c209e140353-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=5777#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=5777\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"headline\":\"Supreme Court upholds bans on transgender women in female athletics\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-30T14:36:24+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=5777\"},\"wordCount\":829,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=5777#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/297c772641f685ea8c525074dff93bda-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=5777#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=5777\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=5777\",\"name\":\"Supreme Court upholds bans on transgender women in female athletics - 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