Supreme Court Could Kill College Transgender Sports
Supreme Court will end up ruling against transgender women being allowed to compete in women's sport in school and college, in a "Title 9 case."In 2022 Gaines, then a student and college swimmer at the University of Kentucky, tied with transgender athlete Lia Thomas in 200-yard NCAA freestyle championship.
Thomas, who Gaines regards as a biological male, also won the 500-yard NCAA freestyle competition, making her the first trans athlete to win a Division I national championship.Title 9, which outlaws discrimination based on sex at any school or educational facility which receives federal funding, passed into law as part of the Education Amendments of 1972.
Speaking to Newsweek, Gaines said she expects justices on the Supreme Court will do "not just the right thing and the fair thing but the moral thing" and argued this means prohibiting transgender participation in women's university sport.In January the Supreme Court declined to hear a Title 9 case from Indiana, when it was asked to review a federal court ruling which concluded a trans student has the right to use the restroom corresponding with their gender identity, against the wishes of the local school district.The court also decided in April 2023 it wouldn't take up a case from West Virgina from authorities wanting to uphold a state law banning trans athletes from women's sports in public schools, which was initially challenged by 12-year-old trans girl Becky Pepper-Jackson.Gaines admitted she had been "kind of stung" by the West Virginia case, and wondered "what is the Supreme Court doing?" However, she was assured that it didn't mean the court was "siding with the other side," rather that "they didn't have the capacity to take it up at the time."She is hopeful that a Title 9 case will end up before the Supreme Court, singling out the lawsuit brought by four track and field runners, including sprinter Chelsea Mitchell, in Connecticut after they were required to compete against trans athletes.
