These Middle School Girls in West Virginia Refused to Compete Against a Boy — THIS is the Way

Lawmakers draft bills to ban boys from competing on girls’ sports teams to protect the girls’ equal opportunity for fair competition. Some governors sign these bills into law, and other governors veto them.

Even when these bills become law, some courts block enforcement. And the girls have to wait. In the meantime, boys are winning, and girls are losing.

If laws don’t work, what are these girls to do?

A group of girls in West Virginia showed the way. They refused to participate in a farce track and field meet with a 13-year-old boy going by the name Becky Pepper-Jackson. He sued to stop enforcement against the state’s Save Women’s Sports Act.

Outkick reported that several middle schools competed at the meet, and the girls from one school refused to compete against the boy.

According to one of the girls who stepped out, the transgender athlete won the shot put event during the Championships. [emphasis added]

Riley Gaines, host of the Gaines for Girls podcast on OutKick, shared her thoughts on the girls refusing to compete against a transgender opponent.

“It’s a sad day when the middle school girls have to be the adults in the room. Conceding your event is so much easier said than done, but these girls have the tenacity and ability to stand their ground,” Gaines said.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that West Virginia could not enforce the Save Women’s Sports Act against Pepper-Jackson. Legal firm Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) said this decision threatens women’s sports.

Rachel Rouleau, ADF attorney, said the decision “undermines equal opportunities and contradicts both biological reality and common sense. Title IX was designed to provide women with fair competition, and West Virginia’s women’s sports law does the same. Across the country, women and girls are unjustly losing medals, podium spots, public recognition, and the opportunity to compete when males take their places.”

ADF quoted one of the dissenting judges, who wrote that Pepper-Johnson has “displaced at least one hundred biological girls at track-and-field events and pushed multiple girls out of the top ten.” Because of this boy competing on the girls’ team, at least two girls don’t have “opportunities to participate in the conference championships. And this was in a single season.”

It’s extremely unfortunate that such young girls have to deal with this, but their resistance is important. If courts block laws designed to protect them physically and their opportunities to experience sports victories, they must protest by refusing to compete, even if it means forfeiting the season.

If they all refuse to compete, there is no game. Maybe the end of girls’ sports will finally outrage enough people to act.

By Jarek Tuszyński – Own work, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons