Connect with us

National

Idaho sued over law barring trans athletes from playing in sports

Gov. Little signed anti-trans measure into law during COVID-19 crisis.

Published

on

Lindsay Hecox is a trans athlete suing Idaho to participate in the track team. (Photo courtesy of the United States District Court for the District of Idaho)

Transgender legal advocates filed Wednesday in federal court a lawsuit challenging Idaho’s newly enacted law barring transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports.

Among the plaintiffs in the litigation is Lindsay Hecox, a 19-year-old woman attending Boise State University who seeks to participate in the intercollegiate track and cross-country teams at the school.

“I just want to run with other girls on the team,” Hecox said in a statement. “I run for myself, but part of what I enjoy about the sport is building the relationships with a team. I’m a girl, and the right team for me is the girls’ team.”

HB 500, quietly signed into law last month by Idaho Gov. Brad Little amid the coronavirus epidemic, is the first and only state law in the country that bars transgender athletes from participating in school sports. Similar anti-trans measures, however, have been percolating in state legislatures throughout the country.

The transgender legal advocates who filed the 60-page complaint before the U.S. District Court in Idaho are the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Idaho, Legal Voice and Cooley LLP.

ACLU of Idaho Legal Director Ritchie Eppink said in a statement Idaho residents “have been fighting this hateful, unconstitutional legislation since it was introduced.”

“Businesses, major employers, schools, doctors, and counselors have all warned that this law is terrible for Idaho,” Eppink said.

Hecox, in a Zoom call with reporters on Wednesday, told the Washington Blade she was amid her studies at the time HB 509 was moving through the legislative process, but still actively opposed and testified against it before the Idaho State Senate.

“As it got to the governor’s desk, I was pretty sure that it was going to pass,” Hecox said. “I am an optimist by nature, but it was not likely to be vetoed because of the political leanings of this state, and when I eventually did hear the news, I was more or less just sad, but not defeated.”

Dubbed the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act,” HB 500 requires college and public school sports teams to be designed as male, female and co-ed — and any female athletic team “shall not be open to students of the male sex.”

In the event of a dispute, a student may be required to produce a physician’s statement to affirm her biological sex based on reproductive anatomy, normal endogenously produced levels of testosterone and an analysis of the student’s genetic makeup. That would effectively ban transgender athletes from participating in sports.

Another plaintiff in the lawsuit, anonymously referred to as Jane Doe, is a non-trans female athlete at Boise High School who seeks to try out for soccer in August 2020, but fears she could be forced to provide documentation about her sex under HB 500 and believes that would violate “her privacy and security, both emotionally and physically, if she continues to play sports.”

Catherine West, a staff attorney at Legal Voice, said in a statement HB 500 harms not just transgender athletes, but women seeking to participate in sports. 

“Embedding this discrimination into Idaho law is unnecessary and harmful to all,” West said. “Female athletes deserve to play, not endure invasive testing or internal and external exams.” 

According to the lawsuit, existing rules in Idaho prior to HB 500 already required transgender girls to “complete one year of hormone treatment related to the gender transition before competing on a girls team.” Further, there were no reported issues with the administration of that rule or its effect on athletics in Idaho, the complaint says. 

“We’re suing because HB 500 illegally targets women and girls who are transgender and intersex and subjects all female athletes to the possibility of invasive genital and genetic screenings,” Gabriel Arkles, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project said in a statement. “In Idaho and around the country, transgender people of all ages have been participating in sports consistent with their gender identity for years. Inclusive teams support all athletes and encourage participation — this should be the standard for all school sports.” 

The lawsuit challenges the law on the basis that it violates the rights to equal protection and due process under the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution; the prohibition on unconstitutional search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment; Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which bars discrimination in schools on the basis of sex; and the “lack of fair notice” principle of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Before Little signed HB 500, Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden had warned the legislation was “constitutionally problematic” and would likely violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. A Wasden spokesperson, citing a policy of no comment on pending litigation, declined to comment on the lawsuit.

But HB 500 was one of two anti-trans bills Little signed into law last month. The other was HB 509, which bars transgender people in Idaho from changing the gender marker on their birth certificates consistent with their gender identity.

Little signed that measure into law in defiance of a court order in 2018 requiring Idaho to allow transgender individuals to change the gender marker on the birth certificates.

The LGBTQ legal group Lambda Legal obtained the previous court order and threatened additional legal action if HB 509 passed. A Lambda spokesperson told the Blade action against HB 509 “could happen pretty soon.”

[UPDATE 4/16/2020: Lambda Legal on Thursday filed a motion with the U.S. District Court of the Idaho to confirm that the 2018 order bars enforcement of HB 509.

“Permanent means permanent,” Lambda Legal Counsel Peter Renn said in a statement. “It is shocking that state lawmakers would be so brazenly lawless as to defy a federal court ruling. The rule of law collapses if we refuse to abide by the outcome of who wins and who loses in our system of justice. HB 509, which reinstates a ban that the court already declared unconstitutional, is a naked flouting of the rule of law.”]

The litigation against HB 500 is filed as the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to soon rule whether anti-LGBTQ discrimination in employment is a form of sex discrimination, thus illegal under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Although that decision is directly related to employment, it could have an impact on all federal laws barring discrimination on the basis of sex, including Title IX, which forms a component of the complaint against HB 500.

In the Zoom call with reporters, the ACLU’s Arkles said the Title VII ruling “could have implications” for how the courts interpret Title IX, but “not necessarily” because the two federal laws are structured differently and that argument forms just one component of the lawsuit against HB 500.

“There are several other claims in this case that would not necessarily be impacted by a decision in [the Supreme Court case],” Arkles said. “In addition to the Title IX claim, we’re also bringing claims under the U.S. Constitution, based on the equal protection clause, the protection against unreasonable search and seizure and invasion of privacy.”

The litigation is needed now before the Supreme Court has ruled and issued clarity on federal law, Arkles said, because plaintiffs need immediate relief.

“We brought it now because, the need is urgent,” Arkles said. “So assuming that fall sports go ahead as planned, this law is going to have an impact on Linsday in a few short months, so really it wasn’t any time for us to wait.”

Advertisement
FUND LGBTQ JOURNALISM
SIGN UP FOR E-BLAST

New York

Men convicted of murdering two men in NYC gay bar drugging scheme sentenced

One of the victims, John Umberger, was D.C. political consultant

Published

on

(Washington Blade photo by Michael K. Lavers)

A New York judge on Wednesday sentenced three men convicted of killing a D.C. political consultant and another man who they targeted at gay bars in Manhattan.

NBC New York notes a jury in February convicted Jayqwan Hamilton, Jacob Barroso, and Robert DeMaio of murder, robbery, and conspiracy in relation to druggings and robberies that targeted gay bars in Manhattan from March 2021 to June 2022.

John Umberger, a 33-year-old political consultant from D.C., and Julio Ramirez, a 25-year-old social worker, died. Prosecutors said Hamilton, Barroso, and DeMaio targeted three other men at gay bars.

The jury convicted Hamilton and DeMaio of murdering Umberger. State Supreme Court Judge Felicia Mennin sentenced Hamilton and DeMaio to 40 years to life in prison.

Barroso, who was convicted of killing Ramirez, received a 20 years to life sentence.

Continue Reading

National

Medical groups file lawsuit over Trump deletion of health information

Crucial datasets included LGBTQ, HIV resources

Published

on

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is named as a defendant in the lawsuit. (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

Nine private medical and public health advocacy organizations, including two from D.C., filed a lawsuit on May 20 in federal court in Seattle challenging what it calls the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’s illegal deletion of dozens or more of its webpages containing health related information, including HIV information.

The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington, names as defendants Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and HHS itself, and several agencies operating under HHS and its directors, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health, and the Food and Drug Administration.

“This action challenges the widespread deletion of public health resources from federal agencies,” the lawsuit states. “Dozens (if not more) of taxpayer-funded webpages, databases, and other crucial resources have vanished since January 20, 2025, leaving doctors, nurses, researchers, and the public scrambling for information,” it says.

 “These actions have undermined the longstanding, congressionally mandated regime; irreparably harmed Plaintiffs and others who rely on these federal resources; and put the nation’s public health infrastructure in unnecessary jeopardy,” the lawsuit continues.

It adds, “The removal of public health resources was apparently prompted by two recent executive orders – one focused on ‘gender ideology’ and the other targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion (‘DEI’) programs. Defendants implemented these executive orders in a haphazard manner that resulted in the deletion (inadvertent or otherwise) of health-related websites and databases, including information related to pregnancy risks, public health datasets, information about opioid-use disorder, and many other valuable resources.”

 The lawsuit does not mention that it was President Donald Trump who issued the two executive orders in question. 

A White House spokesperson couldn’t immediately be reached for comment on the lawsuit. 

While not mentioning Trump by name, the lawsuit names as defendants in addition to HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., Matthew Buzzelli, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health; Martin Makary, commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration; Thomas Engels, administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration; and Charles Ezell, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management. 

The 44-page lawsuit complaint includes an addendum with a chart showing the titles or descriptions of 49 “affected resource” website pages that it says were deleted because of the executive orders. The chart shows that just four of the sites were restored after initially being deleted.

 Of the 49 sites, 15 addressed LGBTQ-related health issues and six others addressed HIV issues, according to the chart.   

“The unannounced and unprecedented deletion of these federal webpages and datasets came as a shock to the medical and scientific communities, which had come to rely on them to monitor and respond to disease outbreaks, assist physicians and other clinicians in daily care, and inform the public about a wide range of healthcare issues,” the lawsuit states.

 “Health professionals, nonprofit organizations, and state and local authorities used the websites and datasets daily in care for their patients, to provide resources to their communities, and promote public health,” it says. 

Jose Zuniga, president and CEO of the International Association of Providers of AIDS Care (IAPAC), one of the organizations that signed on as a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said in a statement that the deleted information from the HHS websites “includes essential information about LGBTQ+ health, gender and reproductive rights, clinical trial data, Mpox and other vaccine guidance and HIV prevention resources.”

 Zuniga added, “IAPAC champions evidence-based, data-informed HIV responses and we reject ideologically driven efforts that undermine public health and erase marginalized communities.”

Lisa Amore, a spokesperson for Whitman-Walker Health, D.C.’s largest LGBTQ supportive health services provider, also expressed concern about the potential impact of the HHS website deletions.

 “As the region’s leader in HIV care and prevention, Whitman-Walker Health relies on scientific data to help us drive our resources and measure our successes,” Amore said in response to a request for comment from  the Washington Blade. 

“The District of Columbia has made great strides in the fight against HIV,” Amore said. “But the removal of public facing information from the HHS website makes our collective work much harder and will set HIV care and prevention backward,” she said. 

The lawsuit calls on the court to issue a declaratory judgement that the “deletion of public health webpages and resources is unlawful and invalid” and to issue a preliminary or permanent injunction ordering government officials named as defendants in the lawsuit “to restore the public health webpages and resources that have been deleted and to maintain their web domains in accordance with their statutory duties.”

It also calls on the court to require defendant government officials to “file a status report with the Court within twenty-four hours of entry of a preliminary injunction, and at regular intervals, thereafter, confirming compliance with these orders.”

The health organizations that joined the lawsuit as plaintiffs include the Washington State Medical Association, Washington State Nurses Association, Washington Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Academy Health, Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, Fast-Track Cities Institute, International Association of Providers of AIDS Care, National LGBT Cancer Network, and Vermont Medical Society. 

The Fast-Track Cities Institute and International Association of Providers of AIDS Care are based in D.C.

Continue Reading

U.S. Federal Courts

Federal judge scraps trans-inclusive workplace discrimination protections

Ruling appears to contradict US Supreme Court precedent

Published

on

Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas (Screen capture: YouTube)

Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas has struck down guidelines by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission designed to protect against workplace harassment based on gender identity and sexual orientation.

The EEOC in April 2024 updated its guidelines to comply with the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County (2020), which determined that discrimination against transgender people constituted sex-based discrimination as proscribed under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

To ensure compliance with the law, the agency recommended that employers honor their employees’ preferred pronouns while granting them access to bathrooms and allowing them to wear dress code-compliant clothing that aligns with their gender identities.

While the the guidelines are not legally binding, Kacsmaryk ruled that their issuance created “mandatory standards” exceeding the EEOC’s statutory authority that were “inconsistent with the text, history, and tradition of Title VII and recent Supreme Court precedent.”

“Title VII does not require employers or courts to blind themselves to the biological differences between men and women,” he wrote in the opinion.

The case, which was brought by the conservative think tank behind Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation, presents the greatest setback for LGBTQ inclusive workplace protections since President Donald Trump’s issuance of an executive order on the first day of his second term directing U.S. federal agencies to recognize only two genders as determined by birth sex.

Last month, top Democrats from both chambers of Congress reintroduced the Equality Act, which would codify LGBTQ-inclusive protections against discrimination into federal law, covering employment as well as areas like housing and jury service.

Continue Reading

Popular