"Federal Appeals Court Upholds Transgender Athlete's Right to Compete in West Virginia"

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled that a transgender middle-schooler in West Virginia, Becky Pepper-Jackson, cannot be barred from participating in girls' cross-country running and track teams, citing her identification as female for five years, a birth certificate that identifies her as female, and medication to block male puberty. The court found that excluding her from girls' teams would violate federal civil rights law and that her case was not a basis for creating separate sports teams for transgender girls. The ruling is part of a broader legal battle over trans rights in sports, with the Biden administration proposing rules that could change how similar cases are analyzed in the future.