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Heather Jackson filed a lawsuit Wednesday on behalf of her daughter, 11-year-old Becky Pepper-Jackson, challenging West Virginiaâs new law banning transgender girls and women from participating in school-sanctioned sports that align with their gender identity. Pepper-Jackson, a runner, is being prohibited from joining her middle schoolâs cross-country team because she is transgender.
Courtesy of ACLU
By LACIE PIERSON
HD Media May 26, 2021
This is the Robert C. Byrd Federal Courthouse in Charleston.
A coalition including ACLU-West Virginia has filed a federal lawsuit over the state’s new law prohibiting transgender athletes from competing on female sports teams.
The lawsuit was brought on behalf of 11-year-old Becky Pepper-Jackson of Harrison County, a transgender girl who had wanted to compete in cross country this coming school year.
“I just want to run. I come from a family of runners,” she said in a release distributed today by the groups filing suit. “I know how hurtful a law like this is to all kids like me who just want to play sports with their classmates, and I’m doing this for them. Trans kids deserve better.”