By Steven Allen Adams, The Journal
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia Attorney General’s Office, the W.Va. Board of Education and a county board of education filed responses last week in a federal lawsuit challenging the state’s ban on female transgender student-athletes.
Attorneys for the state board of education and the Harrison County Board of Education filed separate responses in a case brought last month against the state by Lambda Legal, the state and national chapters of the American Civil Liberties Union and the law firm Cooley LLP against House Bill 3293, relating to transgender student participation in interscholastic athletic events.
The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, was brought on behalf of an 11-year-old transgender girl who planned to try out for her middle school’s cross-country team. HB 3293 requires student-athletes in middle school, high school or college to participate in sports that match their biological sex based on the student’s sex at the time of their birth.
The Attorney General’s Office filed a defendant-intervenor on behalf of the state. In a response filed last Wednesday to the lawsuit, Deputy Attorney General Curtis Capehart made note that they filed their response on the 49th anniversary of the adoption of Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in education programs and activities…