Federal judge rules in favor of trans Va. student blocked from girls’ sports team
A federal judge has ruled in favor of a transgender student in Hanover County who was prevented from playing on her school’s girls’ tennis team because of her gender identity.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, which filed a lawsuit last month on behalf of the 11-year-old middle school student who is identified as “Janie Doe,” notes on its website that U.S.
District Court Judge M. Hannah Lauck issued her ruling on Aug. 16. Lauck, according to the ACLU of Virginia, found the Hanover County School Board “likely violated Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S.
Constitution” when it prevented the student from joining her school’s tennis team in 2023. “Janie has established that the board excluded her, on the basis of sex, from participating in an education program when it denied her application to try out for (and if selected, to participate on) her school’s girls’ tennis team,” wrote Lauck.
