Attorney General Jason Miyares has filed a legal brief supporting the Hanover County School Board in its legal fight to keep a trans middle-schooler from playing on her school tennis team.
“Neither the federal Constitution nor any federal statute require Virginia school boards to allow biological males to play on a girls sports team. Rather, civil rights law is meant to protect female equity in athletics. I urge the court to ensure that women’s rights and opportunities remain protected in Virginia,” Miyares said in a statement on Thursday.
Interesting take there from Miyares, that he wants to “ensure that women’s rights and opportunities are protected,” considering his consistent support for state-level restrictions on women’s reproductive freedoms, which would seem to be, you know, the opposite of protecting women’s rights and freedoms.
The ACLU of Virginia and WilmerDale are challenging the school board in a suit filed in federal court on behalf of the student, named “Janie Doe” in the suit to protect her identity, and we have to say, in this climate, also protect her safety, and the safety of her family.
According to the suit, the student made the team after tryouts last year, and her parents provided documentation requested by the school board to establish her eligibility, but the school board voted unanimously to exclude her from the team.
“We jumped through every invasive hoop the school district asked us to so that our child could play, but it still wasn’t enough for them,” the father of “Janie Doe” said. “As a parent, I should be the one determining my children’s participation in extracurriculars, not the government, and certainly not unelected adults trying to score political points by bullying my daughter.”
The ACLU of Virginia noted in a blog post on the suit that trans athletes within the Virginia High School League “have been able to compete for more than a decade on teams consistent with their gender identity without any disruption whatsoever.”
“School boards have a duty to protect every child’s right to a public education, but by bullying a transgender young person in its district, Hanover County Public Schools are depriving our client of opportunities every public-school student should have – and running afoul of federal discrimination protections that Virginia schools are legally required to uphold,” ACLU of Virginia Senior Transgender Attorney Wyatt Rolla said in a statement on the lawsuit.
A hearing in the case is scheduled for Aug. 6.
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Chris Graham
