B.P.J. v. West Virginia State Board of Education

In 2021, West Virginia enacted the Save Women’s Sports Bill (the law), which provided that athletic teams or sports designated for females would not be open to males if selection for a team was based on competitive skill or the sport was a contact sport. The law defined female and male based on an individual’s biological sex as determined at birth. West Virginia’s stated purposes in enacting the law were to provide equal opportunities for female athletes and protect female athletes’ physical safety during athletic competitions. B.P.J. (plaintiff) was an 11-year-old transgender girl who wanted to join her school’s sixth-grade girls’ cross-country and track teams. B.P.J. was assigned the sex of male at birth but had been living as a girl since the third grade. B.P.J. was diagnosed with gender dysphoria in 2019 and began puberty-delaying treatment in 2020. B.P.J. was the only transgender student at her school interested in joining a sports team. In 2021, B.P.J.’s school informed B.P.J. that she would not be allowed to join the school’s girls’ cross-country or track teams because of the law. B.P.J. and her mother (plaintiff) sued the West Virginia State Board of Education and various West Virginia state officials (collectively, the state) (defendants), seeking a preliminary injunction to prevent enforcement of the law. B.P.J. and her mother contended that the law was designed to exclude transgender girls and women from sports in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title IX.