Queer 101_BONUS_Supreme Court Decision

Hey y’all, it’s Peppermint. 💕

I had to jump in here today  to break down a devastating Supreme Court decision that affects transgender girls and women across the United States.

The Supreme Court has sided with West Virginia and Idaho, allowing states to ban transgender girls and women from playing on girls’ school sports teams—from middle school through college. In West Virginia v. BPJ and Little v. Hecox, the Court backed laws that define who counts as a “girl” strictly by sex assigned at birth, rejecting arguments under Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Let me be clear: this decision doesn’t just impact two states. It sends a message to trans kids across the country that their identities can be legislated away. In this special episode, I break down what the Court decided, what it avoided, and why this ruling puts transgender youth—and the future of equal protection—on the line.

BPJ is an 11‑year‑old trans girl who challenged West Virginia’s ban with support from organizations like the ACLU and Lambda Legal. And while this ruling is devastating, I talk through why it’s narrower than it could have been—and why that matters.

But this isn’t just about trans girls.

I explain how these sports bans open the door to increased policing of all women’s bodies—especially cisgender women, women of color, and women with intersex traits. We’ve already seen this scrutiny directed at athletes like Caster Semenya, Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Simone Biles, and even Michelle Obama—women whose bodies have been publicly questioned simply for not fitting narrow expectations of femininity.

This episode is personal. It’s political. And it’s urgent.

If you care about LGBTQ+ rights, Title IX, women’s sports, bodily autonomy, and the future of equality in America, this conversation is for you.

Drop your thoughts in the comments, share this episode, and make sure you’re subscribed so you don’t miss what’s next.

Follow us at:

• @peppermint247
• @hughoryan
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Write to us at:

• questions@queer101podcast.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:04

Hey y'all, it's me, Peppermint, and I am here today for a very special episode of Queer 101 because everybody here at the podcast feels it was really important to say something today. Um, Hugh is on his book tour um and he sends his regards, but we are definitely on the same page with this. I know this for a fact, honey. Um, so if you haven't heard, the Supreme Court today made uh a decision. They've been releasing decisions all week. They basically have their court cases throughout the year, and then in the summer is when they release all of their um decisions. So um the Supreme Court's recent decision came out today uh in a conservative majority, uh saying that basically upholding state laws in West Virginia and in Idaho uh that uh ban transgender girls and women from participating in female scholastic sports teams. That's middle school, high school, college. Um so I wanted to jump on here today and share with you how I'm feeling, my thoughts about the decision, and what this really means for trans people and also queer people in this country and honestly, even everybody to be to be frank. Let me start by quickly explaining the case. The name of the case is BPJ versus Heacocks or West Virginia. Um, and the question before the court is whether or not um under Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause, schools may maintain women and girls' sports teams for biological cisgender girls or women, um, biological females. And if they can basically make that determination on the basis of sex at birth or biological sex. So in the past few years, now 27 states have enacted basically transgender sports bans for women and girls sports. And in 2021, West Virginia came through with their law, and BPJ is an 11-year-old trans girl who wanted to play in the sports team, so she sued the state. This court case made it all the way through the court system until it got to the Supreme Court, who upheld the lower court's decision that they, yes, these schools can and the state can discriminate on the basis of sex at birth. If you are not assigned female at birth, biologically female, then you cannot participate in women and girls' sports teams in at any school club or sports club, basically. And so BPJ, the ACLU Lambda basically said that this is a violation of constitutional rights and protections. And the Supreme Court denied that. And they concluded that maintaining the eligibility based on sex at birth for women and girl sports does not, in its view, uh amount to unconstitutional discrimination on the basis of sex. And I disagree. Now, I hate sports, but I can still recognize that this decision is devastating, especially for young trans girls and trans people who want to participate in sports. They want to play with their friends and socialize and participate in an age-old pastime and tradition. I think this decision was extremely disappointing. But I'm very grateful that it was much more narrow than it could have been. It's no secret that this government is trying to enact sweeping restrictions that basically serve to detach trans people, immigrants, people of color from our very own constitutional and civil rights. Now, they were not successful this time in doing that, but they were successful in making a judgment about school sports. And the court is basically sending a message that this decision pertains only to this case and basically to this area and doesn't really give people license to discriminate in other areas. So it'll be really interesting to see what happens next. Anti-trans policies, we know, impact more than just trans people on their families. They also impact cisgender people. And so it'll be interesting to see if they're really going to work to protect the women and girls that they claim to talk about, claim to be protecting. They only talk about protecting women and girls, by the way, when they're using it as a subject to protect themselves and as a shield while they're attacking trans people. That's the only time you hear protecting women and girls is in the context of trans people. We don't hear about that in the context of anyone else. So it'll be interesting to see if the state of West Virginia or any other 27 states who currently have these discriminatory policies in place make moves to protect those same women and girls that they're now that trans people are eliminated from the equation. Let's see how protective women and girls feel when the testing and the scrutiny comes in, when they're being interrogated about whether or not they're actually trans. Let's see how protective women and girls feel when they are being subjected to genetic testing and hormone testing. Let's see how protective women and girls feel if they're subjected to physical tests to check their genitalia to determine whether they're actually trans or not. And before you say that that is, whoa, that's not happening, that's beyond the pale, talk to Castor Semenya. There are many cisgender women who've been accused of being trans when they were using the bathroom and basically interrogated by other women in the restroom on whether or not they're trans. That is headline after headline after headline after headline after headline. We've seen that. Castor Semenya was an Olympic hopeful and professional athlete who was competing in women's track and is a woman, not trans, but because of her body isn't petite enough or because she's too tall or maybe too muscular, her womanhood is called into question. And I want to remind you that this happens oftentimes with black women. Black women. Michelle Obama was famously called a man on the White House lawn during a 250-year celebration of our country, during an official event that our taxpayer dollars apparently went to to defund. She was accused of being a man. And that's not the first time. Obviously, it's all over the internet, but that's certainly not the first time that we've heard that Michelle Obama, Simone Biles, Serena Williams, Venus Williams are men. That's what we've heard. And so I think it's really that is an extension of white supremacy and anti-black racism. Historically, black enslaved Africans in this country were not viewed as human constitutionally. And women were not viewed as women. And so it'll be interesting to see how that plays out. There's lots of women, oftentimes women of color, who are attacked and accused of being not women. J.K. Rowling famously attacked Mani Khalif. Not in the United States, obviously, but in last year's Olympics or two years ago in the Olympics, boxing or MMA or one of the some sports as a fighter was accused by J.K. Rowling of being trans. And one of the things that's really common but not talked about is are conditions that put place people in a spectrum when it comes to biological sex. Intersex conditions, Swire's Turner syndrome, Swire's syndrome. There are people who just to name a few couple of them, there are people who have chromosomal differences. Doesn't make them abnormal people. It just means that their chromosomes are aligned in a way that isn't clearly XY or XX. And despite the fact that most people think it's black or white, every woman is born with, every man is born with, and that's that. But we know based on science and biology that there is a large gray area. So it's safe to say that many or most women have, and most men have this, but it's not accurate to say scientifically that all people are one thing or another. So it'll be interesting to see how these attacks play out. What types of laws and policies will be enacted in order to enforce this? I'd be surprised if it's not genital texts and biological genetic testing. And if it's forcing people to go into or use the restrooms, be on the sports teams that align with the sex they were assigned at birth, that places transgender men in a position of having to use women and girls' sports facilities and sports teams. And it's really interesting. It really reminds me of a friend of mine named Mac Beggs, who was featured in a fabulous documentary about trans folks' participation in sports that everybody should watch. It's called Changing the Game. And in that, there's a scene where Mac is being Mac, who is trans masked, was assigned female at birth, was forced in Texas to play on the girls' sports teams, young women's sports team, wrestling team. And he did because that was the only option that he had. And even in that, so he was following the law, following the policy, following all the things, and complying with it. And the crowd was so angry. And the response was not so good. And so I don't want to spoil it. It is a documentary, but I do think that people should watch it. So let's see how protected women and girls feel if they're put in this position with people making the decisions who aren't the medical professionals, but the coaches or some government official. Mind you, the same types of coaches and government officials that have been caught and arrested and tried for in court for sexual molestation. Not every coach, but I'm saying there is an epidemic, an overwhelming epidemic of sexual molestation and abuse in our country. And the overwhelming perpetrators of all of those instances are not transgender people, but cisgender white men, not trans women. And even though there's a concerted effort to distract people, now that they've effectively banned trans girls from participating in girls' school sports, it'll allow us to watch and see who is actually doing the harm. I want to remind people that this decision was not made on the basis of medical professionals or scientific evidence or even real life experiences. This was decided based on hypothetical theory that says that trans people are these sort of scary monsters that are creeping around and harming young girls. And I guess they've successfully convinced a lot of people that that's who we are, even though there's no evidence of that. There's no instances of that happening. And to make things worse, there's report after report of cisgender natural-born women, people who are not trans, women who are not trans, being attacked in the locker room and restrooms all around the country, being accused of being men because their voices are too deep, or because they're too tall, or because they're too heavy, or maybe their shoe size is too big, or maybe they have a little extra hair on their chinny chin chin because of they have PCOS or any other number of conditions that would cause women to present in a way that doesn't allow them to be placed into a box when it comes to gender. And there's story after story after story, post after post after post after account after account of women being arrested and attacked in bathrooms. And it's really important that we keep our eye on that because that's how this country says it's treating its own women that it claims to be protecting. So those are my thoughts and feelings. We'd love to hear what you, our listeners and viewers, have to say as well. So please drop a comment, a review, like, subscribe, all the things. You can even write to us at questions at queer101podcast.com. And remember, we're back every other Tuesday this summer, and then we'll be back together again, Hugh and I, on a weekly basis. The podcast will continue. In the meantime, stay safe. Happy Pride. I love you. And we will get through this. Thank you so much for joining us today.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

This podcast is part of Pride House Media, hosted by us, Peppermint and Hugh. Produced and edited by Josh Rosensweig with original music composed by Nell Balavan.

SPEAKER_02 13:42

If you enjoyed this episode, then don't forget to subscribe wherever you listen to your podcast. And while you're there, leave us a rating and a review. It really helps others discover the show.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

You can stay connected and join the conversation by following us at Peppermint 247. Or write to us at questions at queer one oh one podcast.com.

SPEAKER_02 14:01

Thank you for listening. And remember, our history is your history. Stay proud, stay curious, and we'll see you next time on Queer One One.