Morrisey files brief supporting WV students who protested competing with transgender athlete

West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey filed a brief in support of the female middle school student-athletes who publicly protested a transgender athlete competing in their track and field competition.

The transgender athlete has been permitted to compete due to a recent federal appeals court ruling. 

Five students who forfeited their shot-put competition April 18 in protest have now been barred from competing in that event at their next track and field meet, according to a new release from the AG’s office. 

Four of the five students, through their parents, filed suit.

“Their actions at the earlier track meet were not disruptive or aggrandizing. They were the quiet demonstration of the student-athletes’ evident unhappiness with the competitive consequences of a federal appellate court’s decision,” Morrisey, a Republican, wrote in the amicus brief filed April 26. 

The girls’ competition forfeiture followed a federal appeals court ruling in favor of West Virginia teen Becky Pepper-Jackson, a trans girl who uses puberty blocking medication. The girl sued the state over its law barring trans athletes from competing on girls’ and women’s sports teams in public schools and colleges. 

The law doesn’t ban trans males from competing on boys’ or mens’ teams.

The federal appeals court ruling only blocked the state’s transgender sports ban in Pepper-Jackson’s case; it did not overturn the state law in its entirety. 

The AG announced last week that he will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on if the state can enforce its transgender athlete ban in Pepper-Jackson’s case. 

Morrisey is currently running for governor in a tight Republican primary race ahead of the May election.