CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Gov. Jim Justice signed multiple bills from the regular legislative session on Wednesday, including the measure prohibiting transgender athletes from joining female sports teams.
House Bill 3293 states transgender athletes cannot be members of female school-sponsored sports clubs at the middle school, high school and collegiate levels. Justice said during Monday’s coronavirus briefing that he would sign the legislation, although he did express concerns about the measure’s impact on college sports and related opportunities for events.
“I do not think that, from the standpoint of our girls, we ought to allow a situation where we end up with a superior athlete that can just knock our girls right out of the competition,” he said.
Justice serves as head coach of the Greenbrier East High School girls’ basketball team.
According to a 2017 report from the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, West Virginia leads the country in residents between the ages of 13 and 17 who identify as transgender with a 1.04% rate.
The American Civil Liberties Union announced shortly following Justice’s signature that it plans to sue the state. Fairness West Virginia Executive Director Andrew Schneider argued separately that federal discrimination laws prevent the West Virginia law from being effective.
BREAKING: West Virginia Governor Jim Justice has signed a bill banning trans students from school sports into law.
We will see West Virginia in court.
— ACLU (@ACLU) April 28, 2021
“Transgender children are worthy of love and support. They deserve the chance to learn and grow in the classroom and on the field,” Schneider added in a statement. “Unfortunately, the very people this law harms were entirely shut out of the legislative process. Not a single transgender person was permitted to testify before the Legislature.”
Multiple state legislative bodies have attempted to pass restrictions affecting transgender athletes, prompting some Republican governors to veto related legislation. Schneider said Fairness West Virginia hoped Justice would join the list.
“Nothing Gov. Justice does can change the fact that trans girls are girls, and they’re worth fighting for,” he added. “We will never stop fighting for transgender Mountaineers.”
Human Rights Campaign President Alphonso David said the action affects transgender West Virginians and West Virginia communities as companies and groups oppose such laws.
“Transgender children are children,” he said. “Gov. Justice nor the legislators who voted to pass the bill can name a single example of a transgender child trying to gain an unfair competitive advantage, which underscores that this is nothing more than a politically motivated bill for the sake of discrimination itself.”
The NCAA Board of Governors said earlier this month the organization is committed to having events in states free of discrimination.
“The NCAA has a long-standing policy that provides a more inclusive path for transgender participation in college sports,” the board said April 12. “Our approach — which requires testosterone suppression treatment for transgender women to compete in women’s sports — embraces the evolving science on this issue and is anchored in participation policies of both the International Olympic Committee and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. Inclusion and fairness can coexist for all student-athletes, including transgender athletes, at all levels of sport.”
The governor signed several bills on Wednesday, the final day for such action:
— House Bill 2002, which intends to expedite rights-of-way related to broadband infrastructure and provide consumers with more protections.
— House Bill 2368, or “Mylissa Smith’s Law,” allows patient visitation at hospitals and nursing homes during a state of emergency if the patient’s death is imminent. The measure is named after a Kanawha County hospice nurse who died last October after contracting the coronavirus.
— House Bill 2025, which permits bars and restaurants to offer curbside, to-go and delivery options for alcoholic beverages. Eateries can also begin selling drinks starting at 6 a.m. every day.