Federal judge upholds Florida ban on transgender athletes playing on female teams

A Miami federal judge dismissed a Broward County, Florida, student’s claims of discrimination as he upheld a 2021 state law that bans transgender athletes in public schools and colleges from playing on female sports teams.

In a 39-page order dated Monday, U.S. District Judge Roy Altman said the law, dubbed as the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act and also known as SB 1028, does not violate the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution because its “sex-based classifications are substantially related to the state’s important interest in promoting women’s athletics.”

“Today, we were asked whether a law that separates public-school sports teams by biological sex violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment,” said Altman, an appointee of former President Donald Trump. ”We find that it does not.”

“The Plaintiff is right to say that the statute treats transgender girls differently from both cisgender girls and transgender boys,” the judge wrote. “Under the law, after all, biological females (whether cis or trans) can play on both girls’ and boys’ sports teams. Transgender girls, by contrast, considered male by birth, cannot play on girls’ sports teams.”

“But not all gender-based classifications violate the Equal Protection Clause,” he said.

A spokeswoman for the Washington-based Human Rights Campaign, which brought the case on the student’s behalf, said the organization’s litigation team “is actively working with the plaintiffs on potential next steps.”

The judge said the plaintiff, identified only as D.N., also failed to prove the law was inspired by “discriminatory animus.” And he denied another claim that the law violates Title IX, a federal statute that prohibits sex-based discrimination on the part of educational institutions that receive federal aid.

Altman had temporarily placed the case on hold until the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit decided a case in St. John’s County involving the state’s transgender bathroom law. The entire court decided that Title IX’s reference to “sex” does not include “gender identity.”

The judge also threw out a claim by D.N. with prejudice that the law violates the due process right to privacy.

“The Plaintiff argues that the ‘Defendants’ enforcement of the law would require Plaintiff to disclose sensitive medical information that would otherwise not be available, including to third parties, parents and other students who might file claims under this law,” Altman said. “This potential injury — if we can call it that — is so speculative (and lies so far down a hypothetical chain of imaginary future events) that it cannot support D.N.’s Article III standing here.”

Door open to refile part of the suit

But the judge gave the teenager until Nov. 21 to file an amended complaint that shows how “Title IX prohibits the state from treating D.N., as a biological male, differently than biological females.” Altman also said D.N. could refile the equal protection claim to show “discriminatory animus.”

D.N.’s parents joined in the complaint as plaintiffs; they are listed only by their first names and last initials.

The lawsuit alleged that D.N. played soccer on the girls’ team in middle school, and that she wanted to play on the girls’ high school team. The suit alleged the law would prevent her from playing sports and “decimate her social network.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who was named as the lead defendant in the lawsuit, asserted when he signed the act in June 2021 that the “designation of separate sex-specific athletic teams or sports is necessary to promote equality of athletic opportunities, and the majority of Americans support this action.”

“Multiple polls have stated more than 60% of Americans believe that biological males should not be participating in women’s sports,” he said.

But the Broward School Board, in a public rebuke of the law, said after the bill’s signing that it would continue its support transgender athletes.

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