By Rachel S. Silverman
On April 17, 2023, Plaintiffs, Megan Roe and Jane Doe, filed an action seeking preliminary and permanent injunctive relief related to A.R.S. § 15-120.02, the Save Women’s Sports Act (the Act) in Arizona. Plaintiffs argued that A.R.S. § 15-120.02 violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, Title IX, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. A.R.S. § 15-120.02 prohibits transgender girls from participating in an athletic team or sport designated as female, women, or girls. Plaintiffs claimed they had not undergone male puberty and thus had no competitive or physiological advantage over their cisgender peers.
Megan Roe is a fifteen-year-old transgender girl residing in Pima County and attends The Gregory School, a private middle and high school in Tucson, Arizona. Megan intended to try out for the girls’ volleyball team. She has lived in all aspects of her life as a girl since she was seven. Through a court order, she changed her name and gender and has a female gender marker on her passport. She was diagnosed with gender dysphoria at ten and began taking puberty blockers at eleven. She also began hormone therapy at age twelve. Due to the puberty blockers and hormone therapy, Megan has not experienced male puberty, and the physiological changes and testosterone levels usually seen in male puberty. Megan’s teammates, coaches, and school supported her participation on the girls’ volleyball team, but A.R.S. § 15-120.02 prohibited her involvement.
Jane Doe is an eleven-year-old transgender girl who attends Kyrene Aprende Middle School in Chandler, Arizona, and plans to try out for the girls’ soccer, cross country, and basketball teams. She has lived all aspects of her life as a girl since she was five years old. Through a court order, she changed her name and has a female gender marker on her passport. Her doctors have monitored her for signs of onset puberty, and on June 27, 2023, her doctor prescribed a Supprelin implant, a puberty-blocking medication. If not for A.R.S. § 15-120.02, the school would have permitted Jane Doe to participate on the girls’ sports teams.
Under the A.R.S. § 15-120.02, neither of the girls can try out or participate on the girls’ teams because they are transgender. Before A.R.S. § 15-120.02 was enacted, both girls would have been permitted to participate on girls’ sports teams. Arizona Interscholastic Association Incorporated (AIA) sets the rules governing interscholastic sports for member schools, grades 9-12. In December 2018, the AIA enacted a policy to permit transgender students to play on teams consistent with their gender identity if they had a letter of support from their legal guardian. AIA has a medical and psychiatric experts committee that reviews requests to play on teams consistent with gender identity. The committee ensures the request is not motivated by an improper purpose. In the past 10-12 years, the committee received 12 submissions and approved seven students to play on a team consistent with their gender identity.
The court explained there was no evidence of transgender girls replacing non-transgender girls on sports teams and no risk of physical injury by allowing transgender girls to participate on teams consistent with their gender identity. Excluding Plaintiffs from sports teams consistent with their gender identity causes Plaintiffs serious injury, and transgender girls who have not undergone male puberty do not have an athletic advantage. Before the Act, Plaintiffs would have been allowed to participate on teams aligning with their gender identity; therefore, the court granted a mandatory prohibitory injunction to preserve the status quo.
The court stated that Plaintiffs were likely to have success on the merits of the Equal Protection Clause and Title IX claims. Also, Plaintiffs established that they will suffer irreparable harm if the Act is enforced against them. The public interest and balance of equities favored a preliminary injunction. Therefore, the court granted a preliminary injunction, and Plaintiffs should be allowed to play on girls’ sports teams at their respective schools. The AIA transgender policy complies with the terms of the preliminary injunction.
References
Doe v. Horne, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 125488 *; __ F.Supp.3d __; 2023 WL 4661831
Rachel Silverman is an Assistant Professor and Program Coordinator for the Sports Management Program in the Kinesiology and Sport Sciences Department at the University of Nebraska Kearney. She is a doctoral student (ABD) at Troy University. Her research agenda focuses on women in sports, including legal, sociological, and ethical aspects of sports management.
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