On September 17, WDI USA filed amicus briefs in the cases of West Virginia, et al. v. B.P.J., et al. and Little, et al. v. Hecox, et al. In both cases, states had enacted laws protecting female-only sports and male athletes challenged them. This is the second amicus brief that WDI USA has filed before the Supreme Court on substantive legal issues (the first being in United States v. Skrmetti).
The issue in Little, et al. v. Hecox, et al. is whether the state of Idaho’s law protecting female-only sports violates the rights of male athletes who want to compete “as women” under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. West Virginia, et al. v. B.P.J., et al. presents the question of whether a West Virginia law protects such athletes under either the Equal Protection Clause or Title IX.
WDI USA argues that women and girls have the right to be protected as a discrete sex class under both provisions of law. We argue that both state laws are consistent with Articles I, VII, and VIII of the Declaration on Women’s Sex-Based Rights.
From the briefs:
. . . amicus encourages the Court to take one step further and rule that the Equal Protection Clause requires states to offer separate boys’ and girls’ sports teams based on sex.
It does not make sense to treat America’s women and girls differently for the purpose of designating female-only sports and spaces depending on which states they live in. Women and girls in California and Maine are just as entitled to single-sex sports and spaces as women and girls in West Virginia and Idaho. Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause are, after all, nationwide laws that apply across all fifty states and the District of Columbia. . . .
In these matters, the Court has an opportunity to put this entire discussion to rest. Sex means sex, even if some people claim to have “gender identities” that are somehow inconsistent with their sex. Women and girls are entitled to be acknowledged as a sex class and to single-sex sports and spaces.
The WDI USA Board
Elizabeth Chesak, president
KC Bianco
Katherine Kinney
Irene Lawrence
Lauren Levey
