{"id":731,"date":"2026-06-30T19:09:35","date_gmt":"2026-06-30T19:09:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=731"},"modified":"2026-06-30T19:09:35","modified_gmt":"2026-06-30T19:09:35","slug":"supreme-court-rules-against-trans-athletes-in-verdict-replete-with-transphobia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=731","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court Rules Against Trans Athletes in Verdict Replete with Transphobia"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<!-- begin partial\/series-card --><\/p>\n<div>\n<div>\n<p><i><span>Honest, paywall-free news is rare. Please support our boldly independent journalism with <\/span><\/i><i><span>a donation<\/span><\/i><i><span> of any size.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=729\">At Its Best, LGBTQ Pride Is an Abolitionist Uprising \u2014 and a Dance Party<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that states may bar transgender athletes from girls\u2019 sports, in a continuation of the Trump administration\u2019s attacks on trans rights. The conservative judges\u2019 written opinions were replete with transphobia \u2014 and even the dissenting, liberal position from the court failed to fundamentally uphold the rights of transgender athletes.<\/p>\n<p>The court ruled that laws in West Virginia and Idaho barring transgender athletes from participating in women\u2019s sports do not violate the Constitution\u2019s equal protection clause or Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools. \u201cSchools may determine eligibility for women\u2019s and girls\u2019 sports based on biological sex,\u201d the . <\/p>\n<p>The West Virginia case rested on a lawsuit by Becky Pepper-Jackson, who was 11 years old when she challenged West Virginia\u2019s \u201cSave Women\u2019s Sports Act\u201d in 2021 to be able to continue to play and compete in sports. B.P.J. is a trans athlete who began to transition at 10 years old. <\/p>\n<p>Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who coaches girls\u2019 basketball despite the fact that he\u2019s been accused by multiple women of sexual assault, delivered the majority opinion. He ruled that states may prohibit transgender women and girls from competing on female sports teams and that such bans do not violate Title IX or the Equal Protection Clause. His majority opinion repeatedly states that \u201csex\u201d as referred to in Title IX can only mean \u201cbiological sex\u201d and refers to the supposed \u201cinherent physical differences\u201d between \u201cbiological men\u201d and women. <\/p>\n<p>Kavanaugh\u2019s opinion describes transgender women and girls as \u201cbiological males\u201d and \u201cboys who identify as girls.\u201d Justices John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett signed on to his majority opinion. <\/p>\n<p>Clarence Thomas issued a concurring opinion replete with derogatory, anti-trans language. Thomas\u2019s opinion states that gender dysphoria \u201cis a mutable mental state that is the object of psychiatric treatment,\u201d and \u201cdoes not resemble the immutable characteristics\u201d of race, sex, or national origin. Beyond the blatant cruelty of the statement, the suggestion that race, sex, and national origin are \u201cimmutable\u201d flies in the face of years of analysis revealing each to be socially constructed. <\/p>\n<p>Thomas also calls transgender women and girls \u201cmen who believe they are women\u201d and calls sex \u201cimmutable\u201d and \u201cbinary.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to <em>Scientific American<\/em>, the idea that sex is binary \u201cis bad science.\u201d Biologists have argued that a \u201creliance on strict binary categories of sex fails to accurately capture the diverse and nuanced nature of sex.\u201d And these ideas about supposedly \u201cimmutable\u201d categories \u201care being deployed to restrict women\u2019s bodily autonomy, target LGBTQIA+ individuals\u201d and attack the rights of transgender people. <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=727\">Study: Europe Heat Wave \u201cVirtually Impossible\u201d Without Human-Made Climate Change<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a partial dissent, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. Sotomayor agreed with Kavanaugh\u2019s majority opinion that state bans on transgender athletes do not violate Title IX, and that Title IX does not require an exception for gender identity. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cStates do have some room to legislate around issues when there exists significant, and genuine, scientific debate,\u201d she wrote \u2013 in effect, letting states off the hook for decisions that curb the rights of trans athletes. <\/p>\n<p>Sotomayor\u2019s dissension was solely based on the equal protections claim. She stated that \u201cunresolved factual questions prevent the Court from assessing the merits\u201d of the equal protections claim for trans athletes. Sotomayor\u2019s disagreement focused on the fact that the majority decision upheld a blanket ban without an examination of the full facts \u201cabout the state of the scientific debate\u201d on transgender athletes. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday\u2019s sweeping ruling is a huge overstep of this court\u2019s power to push ideology over honoring basic civil rights,\u201d said Shelby Chestnut, executive director of the Transgender Law Center. <\/p>\n<p>Mariah Moore, director of policy and programs at the Transgender Law Center, also said that the courts cannot be relied on to support transgender rights. \u201cTime and again, our civil rights have been fought for and won when we show up together and make our demands crystal clear. No matter who is in power, we will continue banding together to create a future where every person can live freely as themselves.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>This ruling follows last year\u2019s Supreme Court verdict that upheld state laws prohibiting gender-affirming care for transgender minors, and paving the way for dozens of states to criminalize and ban gender-affirming care for trans minors. <\/p>\n<p>Trump has ramped up his attacks on transgender rights in his second term in office, making the erosion of such rights central to his administration\u2019s right-wing agenda. On the first day of his second term, Trump signed an executive order stating that the U.S. will only recognize \u201ctwo sexes, male and female,\u201d dismissing gender identity. <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=725\">Florida Law Banning Local Net-Zero Emissions Policies Will Take Effect July 1<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Even the dissenting, liberal position failed to fundamentally uphold the rights of transgender athletes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Supreme Court Rules Against Trans Athletes in Verdict Replete with Transphobia - Smart Moving Home<\/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:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=731\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Supreme Court Rules Against Trans Athletes in Verdict Replete with Transphobia - Smart Moving Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Even the dissenting, liberal position failed to fundamentally uphold the rights of transgender athletes.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=731\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Smart Moving Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-30T19:09:35+00:00\" \/>\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:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=731#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=731\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ec0d70042821fd684a174c8d0e8becfa\"},\"headline\":\"Supreme Court Rules Against Trans Athletes in Verdict Replete with Transphobia\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-30T19:09:35+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=731\"},\"wordCount\":843,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=731#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/2ea942a645bf5a34354e3f5141ae19f2.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=731#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=731\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=731\",\"name\":\"Supreme Court Rules Against Trans Athletes in Verdict Replete with Transphobia - Smart Moving Home\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=731#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=731#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/2ea942a645bf5a34354e3f5141ae19f2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-30T19:09:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ec0d70042821fd684a174c8d0e8becfa\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=731#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=731\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/?p=731#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/2ea942a645bf5a34354e3f5141ae19f2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/smartmovinghome.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/2ea942a645bf5a34354e3f5141ae19f2.jpg\",\"width\":2400,\"height\":1600,\"caption\":\"WASHINGTON, DC - JANUARY 13: Protesters supporting transgender athletes competing in women's sports gather outside the Supreme Court on January 13, 2026 in Washington, DC. Groups from both sides of the debate gathered on Tuesday morning to protest while two cases that prohibit transgender girls from joining girls' and women's sports teams are heard inside the Supreme Court. 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Groups from both sides of the debate gathered on Tuesday morning to protest while two cases that prohibit transgender girls from joining girls' and women's sports teams are heard inside the Supreme Court. 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