The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld rules that ban the participation of transgender women in female high school and university sports competitions.
The ruling comes following a student from Idaho and another from West Virginia challenging the ban. The two states previously passed laws requiring athletes on public school and university sports teams to compete only in accordance with their sex recorded at birth.
The ban on transgender athletes, that is biological men who identify as women, has already been adopted in more than two dozen states.
The BBC named one of the trans athletes involved as Lindsay Hecox, a runner who sued the state of Idaho.
“The law ensures that men cannot take the place of women in sports, because that is not fair,” state lawmaker Barbara Ehardt, who had introduced the law, said at the time the legislation was passed.
Transgender individuals in female sports were one of the main topics in the 2024 election campaign, and Donald Trump pledged to end transwomen’s participation in women’s competitions. The U.S. president also signed an executive order that bans transgender women from competing on female sports teams.
