B.P.J. v. West Virginia State Board of Education is the first “Save Women’s Sports” bill to receive scrutiny from the highest court.

Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF) has filed an amicus (Friend-of-the-Court) brief with the United States Supreme Court in the case of B.P.J. v. West Virginia State Board of Education in support of a West Virginia law that protects Title IX female-only sports teams by limiting eligibility on such teams only to women and girls on the basis of sex.

In this case, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) seeks to use a middle school child to challenge West Virginia’s Save Women’s Sports Act in an effort to move toward eliminating single-sex sports for women and girls throughout the state. If the Court accepts the Application, its decision would likely affect the seventeen other states that have passed legislation to protect single-sex sports. West Virginia is now asking the Supreme Court to reverse the Fourth Circuit’s decision and make it clear that the West Virginia law should be enforced.

About the Case

This case centers on a middle school boy who wishes to run on the girls’ track team. The ACLU claims that he should have this right because he identifies as a girl. On their website, they cite sexist claims about what it means to be a girl, such as that Becky’s favorite color is pink and that “[i]n elementary school, Becky had been a cheerleader.” Court documents show that Becky’s family reported he began “expressing” his “gender” as a toddler.

The ACLU falsely claims that the West Virginia Save Women’s Sports Bill “bans trans girls from participating in sports.” However, while Becky can participate on the boy’s track team, he and his mother, (who is bringing the lawsuit), would just prefer he run with the girls.

The ACLU claims that the West Virginia law, which states that, in most cases, “Athletic teams or sports designated for females, women, or girls shall not be open to students of the male sex,” is unconstitutional. The District Court has already ruled against the ACLU, reversing its own injunction and finding the law constitutional on the grounds that the state has a genuine interest in “providing equal athletic opportunities for females.”

Lauren Bone, Legal Counsel for WoLF, said that this case could have a huge impact on women’s sports under Title IX across the country:

“The Court has the opportunity here to preserve the progress women and girls have made against sex discrimination in education since the passing of Title IX. WoLF has been on the front line of this issue since Day 1 and is optimistic the Court will see this issue clearly and allow West Virginia’s law to go into full effect.”

Seventeen states have already passed similar bills. National polling has shown that Americans from every demographic and political orientation support bills such as the Save Women’s Sports Act, with two-thirds of voters agreeing that boys and men who say they identify as transgender should not be allowed to compete in girls’ and women’s athletics.

WoLF’s Amicus Brief to the Supreme Court

WoLF defends the West Virginia law on feminist grounds which rejects the ideology of “gender identity.” 

“If the Court rules for Respondents, it will threaten safe and fair play for female student athletes, undercut the means by which women and girls can achieve educational equality, and ultimately work to erase women and girls under the law. It would not only revoke the very rights and protections that specifically secure women’s educational access, but would do so in order to extend those rights and protections to men claiming to be women.” - WoLF amicus brief 

WoLF argues that women’s sex-based rights and protections cannot be dismissed based on the idiosyncratic and subjective belief about gender identity, a quasi-spiritual concept. 

“To believe that sex is determined by a gendered soul or feminine appearance is to believe that femininity is the same thing as being female.  This belief is offensive and harmful to women and antithetical to civil rights jurisprudence.“ - WoLF amicus brief 

WoLF also raises the importance of recognizing the differences between the male and female sex classes in law, demonstrating the ways in which women and girls are disadvantaged on the basis of sex.

“The biological distinction between men and women has been the criteria by which women have been discriminated against, excluded from public life, exploited, enslaved, sexually abused, and disenfranchised all throughout history.  Women are not asked how they identify or how they see themselves before they experience these things.  Women’s feelings are wholly irrelevant to their condition and standing in this world.” - WoLF amicus brief 

WoLF will continue to keep the public up to date on the status of this emergency petition as information becomes available.

Read the full brief here.

Saving Our Sports

Women’s Liberation Front is a radical feminist organization dedicated to restoring, protecting, and advancing the rights of women and girls. This is not the first amicus brief we have filed to protect women’s sports: from Hecox v. Little in 2020 to A.M. v. Indianapolis in 2022 to Tennessee v. US Dept. of Education in 2023, we have been there to protect women since the beginning. We have been testifying in support of state bills to save women’s sports, most recently in Colorado and Maryland, raising the alarm against new Title IX rules and NCAA’s discriminatory policies, and amplifying the voices of concerned mothers through Letters from the Front.

Take Action! Tell your state to #SaveWomensSports!

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