Idaho, North Carolina Wrestle With Transgender Sports Participation Laws

Idaho and North Carolina this week saw their state's laws around transgender participation in sports radically altered by the courts and lawmakers.

A federal appeals court on Thursday blocked Idaho's first-in-the-nation law banning transgender women and girls from participating in female sports leagues, but in North Carolina lawmakers overrode the governor's vetoes of bills that would limit participation in sports for transgender women and girls. 

A 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel said Idaho's "Fairness in Women's Sports Act" is unconstitutional. 

"This is an important victory for common sense, equality, and the rights of transgender youth under the law," said Chase Strangio, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union, which pursued the court challenge, according to Reuters. 

The Idaho measure was signed into law by republican governor Brad Little in March of 2020. The law bars transgender women and girls of all ages from participating in female sports teams at public schools in the state, from primary school through college.

Since Idaho passed its law, 22 other states of have adopted similar laws governing sports. 

"When our laws ignore biological reality and allow males to compete in women’s sports, women are harmed and denied athletic opportunities," ADF attorney Christiana Kiefer said in a statement.

U.S. Circuit judge Kim McLane Wardlaw, an appointee of former democratic president Bill Clinton, acknowledged those arguments but said a lower-court judge did not abuse his discretion in finding that the categorical ban likely violates transgender students' equal protection rights under the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment.

Wardlaw said the law discriminates against all Idaho female student-athletes on the basis of sex by subjecting only them and not male athletes to and "invasive" sex dispute verification process. 

In North Carolina, the pendulum swung the other way, with lawmakers overriding their governor's veto of bills that targeted transgender youth.

House Bill 574, the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act,” prohibits transgender women from participating on most middle, high school and college level sports teams that align with their gender identities, while House Bill 574 prohibits gender-affirming medical care for those under 18, including treatment advised by their doctors and to which their parents consent.

Both of the North Carolina bills passed on party line, but governor Roy Cooper vetoed both bills, but the North Carolina General Assembly overturned the vetoes late Wednesday. 

GOP lawmakers in the state have contended that the laws are necessary to protect children, but democrats and progressive advocacy groups say they will only further alienate an already marginalized community of LGBTQ+ children who already suffer from higher rates of depression and suicidal ideation. 

“The legislature finally comes back to pass legislation that discriminates, makes housing less safe, blocks FEMA disaster recovery funding, hurts the freedom to vote and damages our economy,” Cooper said of the veto overrides in a statement Wednesday, according to NCNewsline.com. “Yet they still won’t pass a budget when teachers, school bus drivers and Medicaid Expansion for thousands of working people getting kicked off their health plans every week are desperately needed. These are the wrong priorities, especially when they should be working nights and weekends if necessary to get a budget passed by the end of the month.”

The conservative N.C. Values Coalition defended the overturning of the governor's vetoes. 

“HB 808 is a compassionate bill which will protect gender confused youth from medical and trans activists, who urge children with mental health issues to permanently change their bodies by cutting off healthy body parts and consume cancer drugs not FDA-approved for gender transitioning,” said NC Values Coalition executive director Tami Fitzgerald in a statement after the veto override votes Wednesday.

Both the American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association support gender affirming care for transgender youth and have condemned laws that prohibit it.

“This this may be the most heartbreaking bill in a truly heartbreaking session,” said Sen. Lisa Grafstein (D-Wake). “This bill tells parents how to raise their kids. It injects raw politics into these intimate, personal and family medical decisions.”

Advocates for House Bill 574, including current and former high school and college athletes, praised its passage Wednesday.

“I am thrilled that the North Carolina state legislature has voted to override Governor Cooper’s senseless veto of the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act,” said Riley Gaines, a former All-American collegiate swimmer, in a statement Wednesday.