Story at a glance
- A federal judge in Idaho has ruled that a lawsuit challenging a state law preventing transgender athletes from competing on sports teams consistent with their gender identity is “not moot.”
- Under the order, a preliminary injunction blocking the law’s enforcement will remain in place.
- Lindsay Hecox, a transgender runner at Boise State University, sued the state in 2020 after Idaho became the first state in the nation to enact a transgender athlete ban.
A federal judge in Idaho this week ruled that a lawsuit challenging the state’s ban on transgender athletes is “not moot,” meaning the law will remain blocked while litigation continues.
The lawsuit, filed in 2020 on behalf of Lindsay Hecox, a transgender track and cross country runner at Boise State University, challenges an Idaho law that bars transgender athletes through college from competing on sports teams consistent with their gender identity.
Idaho in 2020 became the first state in the nation to enact such a measure. Since then, 17 other states have followed.
According to the lawsuit, Hecox, who ran on co-ed track and cross country teams through high school, had been planning to try out for Boise State’s women’s team in the fall of 2020, a year after she began her medical gender transition.
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Despite being in compliance with NCAA guidelines, which require transgender female athletes to complete one year of testosterone suppressing treatment before being eligible to compete on a women’s sports team, Hecox was no longer able to try out after the state’s transgender athlete ban enacted by Idaho’s governor, Republican Brad Little.
Little, along with members of the state board of education, the president of Boise State University and other school officials, is named as a defendant in Hecox’s lawsuit. She is represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Legal Voice and the law firm Cooley LLP.
In August 2020, five months after Idaho’s transgender athlete ban went into effect, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction blocking Idaho officials from enforcing the law, which the state had sought to appeal.
On Tuesday, District Court Judge David C. Nye said Hecox’s lawsuit was “not moot,” as Idaho had argued in its appeal. Attorneys for the state said the suit was irrelevant after Hecox failed to secure a spot on Boise State’s women’s track or cross country teams and later withdrew from the university. Her NCAA eligibility has also been questioned for reasons beyond her gender identity.
Hecox re-enrolled in classes at Boise State earlier this year after achieving in-state residency, according to court documents. She now plays on the school’s women’s club soccer team and says she will try out again for the women’s track and cross country teams in the fall.
“Although there are some questions about Hecox’s NCAA eligibility, she cannot play soccer, or compete for a spot on the women’s track or cross country teams, absent an injunction,” Nye wrote Tuesday in his order. “Thus, Hecox’s claim is not moot.”
In a statement released by her attorneys, Hecox said she’s glad for the opportunity to keep running – a central part of her identity for most of her life.
“It means a lot to me that Judge Nye agrees that I have done all the things I need to do to have a chance to compete,” she said. “I’m a girl and the right place for me is on the girls’ team.”
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