Federal judge in Idaho stops state from implementing ban on transgender athletes
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BOISE — A federal judge temporarily blocked an Idaho law that bans transgender girls and women from participating in women’s sports.
The Monday ruling means transgender girls and women who want to participate in sports that match their gender identity will be able to this fall at both the college and secondary school level.
“I feel a major sense of relief,” says Lindsay Hecox, a transgender student at Boise State University who is preparing to try out for the track and cross-country teams, in an ACLU news release. “I love running, and part of what I enjoy about the sport is building relationships with a team. I’m a girl, and the right team for me is the girls’ team. It’s time courts recognize that, and I am so glad that the court’s ruling does.”
Civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, sued the state on Hecox’s behalf nearly two weeks after Gov. Brad Little signed the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act,” in March, which made Idaho the first state to bar transgender female athletes from participating in women’s sports. The groups said the law, which was written by Rep. Barbara Ehardt, R-Idaho Falls, was unconstitutional.
In his 87-page ruling, U.S. District Judge David Nye says he issued the preliminary injunction because the plaintiffs are likely to win in court.
Nye says Idaho’s ban on transgender women’s participation in women’s student athletics “stands in stark contrast to the policies of elite athletic bodies that regulate sports both nationally and globally.”
Nye also noted the law opens the door to invasive physical exams if an athlete’s gender is in dispute.
“This provision burdens all female athletes with the risk and embarrassment of having to ‘verify’ their ‘biological sex’ in order to play women’s sports,” Nye says.
He also expressed concerns that the law did not specifically include transgender men and boys.
In an interview with East Idaho News, Ehardt said she disagreed with many of the issues raised by Nye. She emphasized her purpose in proposing the legislation has always been about protecting opportunities for girls and women in sports.
“It simply isn’t fair for any female to have to compete against the inherent physiological advantages that biological males will always possess,” Ehardt tells EastIdahoNews.com. “For me, this will remain an issue for which I’ll always stand strongly.”
A number of Idaho Democratic lawmakers disagree with Ehardt and have fought the bill every step of the way.
Rep. Ilana Rubel, D-Boise, says rules developed by organizations overseeing competitive sports address transgender athletes and have worked well for many years to keep competition fair.
“There had never been a single instance identified in Idaho history where there was a problem arising from transgender athletes. Republican legislators created a crisis out of whole cloth, and now, even a conservative, Trump-appointed judge has concluded the law is likely unconstitutional,” Rubel says in a news release.
Despite the challenges to the law, Ehardt is still hoping the courts will eventually allow it.
“The U.S. Department of Justice has already attested the constitutionality of the Fairness in Women’s Act. We are hopeful that the courts will ultimately uphold the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act and protect equal opportunities for female athletes in Idaho,” Ehardt says.
The athlete law was one of two anti-transgender measures that Idaho Republicans pushed through the Legislature in the 2020 session. Both were signed into law by Little despite warnings from legal experts, including the Idaho Attorney General’s Office, that neither was likely to survive court challenges.
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The other law, which prevented transgender people from changing their birth certificate to match their gender identity, has already been shelved by an Idaho judge who ruled that its implementation violated an injunction she first issued in 2018.