A transgender West Virginia high schooler competing on a girls’ track team won the state championship this weekend before the Supreme Court announces its ruling on a state law that would bar biological boys from female sports.
Becky Pepper-Jackson, a 15-year-old sophomore at Bridgeport High School and the only known openly transgender sports competitor in West Virginia, bested the competition during Saturday’s meet.
The sophomore won first place in the girls’ Class AAA state title with a personal best of 38 feet, 11.75 inches in shot put. The second-place winner came in just under two feet shorter at 36 feet, 11 inches.
The teen, though, is a biological male who transitioned in the third grade before going through puberty.
The next time Pepper-Jackson steps onto the pitch, it may be alongside an all-male team.
West Virginia’s controversial “Save Women’s Sports Act” went into effect in 2021, effectively banning Becky and all other transgender girls from girls’ sports from middle school through college.
Pepper-Jackson’s mother sued over the law, sending it to the lower courts for debate.
Initially, a district judge upheld it, but upon appeal, the 4th Circuit reversed it. Becky’s attorneys at the ACLU delivered oral arguments to the Supreme Court justices in January, but a final ruling isn’t expected until June.
Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Suzanne Beecher, a member of the legal defense against the Pepper-Jackson lawsuit, told Fox News Digital that the star athlete’s victories could actually work in the state’s favor.
“The developments from the state meet from this past weekend just underscore the fact that no amount of testosterone suppression or intervention can undo the very real differences that males have over women,” Beecher said.
West Virginia Attorney General John McCuskey also cited Pepper-Jackson’s state championship in a Tuesday letter to the Supreme Court.
“As a high school sophomore, Pepper-Jackson is not finishing ‘near the back of the pack …’ but is instead defeating every— or nearly every — female in the state in these events. I would appreciate it if you could circulate this message to the members of the court,” McCuskey wrote.
The ACLU has argued that skipping male puberty nullified the supposed biological advantage Becky would otherwise have over female athletes.
The same day that the Supreme Court heard the ACLU’s arguments, justices indicated that they would uphold the ban.