SCOTUS Concludes Pride Month by Allowing States to Ban Trans Students From Girls’ Sports Teams

It’s been a hefty blockbuster week for the Supreme Court this week, which on Tuesday issued a disappointing ruling that ultimately allows states to block trans girls and women from participating in school sports as… themselves. Also disappointingly, NPR got the nation excited when it erroneously(??) published a story about Justice Samuel Alito’s retirement—though it shortly retracted the story afterwards. Sigh. 

The 6-3 decision in Little v. Hecox and West Virginia v. B.P.J. revolved around two cases from Idaho and West Virginia, in which two trans students wanted to play for the girls’ teams at school, but couldn’t because both states imposed a blanket ban on the participation of trans students in sports—even with puberty blockers, or if they showed testosterone levels amount to individuals assigned female at birth. Ultimately, SCOTUS sided with the states and ruled that these laws do not violate the Equal Protection Clause—and rejected the arguments that they discriminate on the basis of sex or gender identity.

“Today’s decision is a devastating setback for the promise of Title IX and for the fundamental principle that all students deserve equal opportunity,” Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of National Women’s Law Center (NWLC), told Jezebel in a statement. “By allowing these states to exclude transgender women and girls like Becky Pepper-Jackson and Lindsay Hecox from school sports, the court has endorsed discrimination and reinforced the same stereotypes that Title IX was designed to dismantle.”

The arguments for the cases were heard about six months ago, during which several conservative justices made—surprise!—very illogical arguments. Justices Clarence Thomas and Amy Coney Barrett argued that a decision in favor of the trans students would allow boys who couldn’t get into their own teams to try out for women’s teams instead; Brett Kavanaugh, who sometimes dabbles in girls’ basketball coaching, said allowing trans students to participate in girls’ sports would “reverse [their] amazing success and will create unfairness”; and Alito seemed to lose his temper when one of the girl’s lawyers pointed out the hypocrisy of Idaho’s law.

Profoundly sad (and angry) about today’s SCOTUS ruling against transgender athletes. The bigotry and racism of several recent rulings are hard to absorb. My heart goes out to transgender people and their families, especially the parents of transgender kids (I know many). I feel your sadness today.

— Kate Starbird (@katestarbird.bsky.social) June 30, 2026 at 5:14 PM

 

This comes about a few months after SCOTUS also ruled against Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy, saying it violated free speech. So, overall, a pretty dismal session for LGBTQ+ rights. Happy Pride!