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A transgender middle school student in West Virginia won her shot put competition by more than three feet last week — as a slew of young girls staged a protest and refused to compete against her.
Becky Pepper-Jackson, 13, took first place at the Harrison County Championships track meet last Thursday with a 32-foot throw, records show.
The second-place competitor finished with a 29-foot effort.
Footage posted online from the meet showed at least five girls from a rival school stepping up to the plate and then refusing to take their throw in a show of protest.
Their results were marked down as “no distance.”
The protest unfolded just days after a federal appeals court ruled Pepper-Jackson couldn’t be banned from participating in cross-country running and track with other girls.
The eighth-grader, who takes puberty blocking medication and estrogen hormone therapy, has identified as a girl since elementary school.
Former collegiate swimmer-turned-activist, Riley Gaines, who has been an outspoken critic of trans participating in girls’ sporting events, was among those to lead the outrage over Pepper-Jackson’s most recent win.
“Five middle school female athletes in West Virginia refuse to throw shot put against male, Becky Pepper-Jackson. This comes just 2 days after the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the WV law that says you must compete in the category that matches your sex,” Gaines tweeted.
“It’s a sad day when 13-14yr old girls have to be the adults in the room, but I couldn’t be more inspired by and proud of these girls. Enough is enough. The tide is turning!”
The ruling Tuesday from the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals blocked a West Virginia law banning transgender girls from playing on girls’ sports teams, which was signed into law by Republican Gov. Jim Justice in 2021.
The court ruled the law couldn’t lawfully be applied to the eighth grader.
Judge Toby Heytens wrote that offering her a “choice” between not participating in sports and participating only on boys teams “is no real choice at all.”
“The defendants cannot expect that B.P.J. will countermand her social transition, her medical treatment, and all the work she has done with her schools, teachers, and coaches for nearly half her life by introducing herself to teammates, coaches, and even opponents as a boy,” Heytens wrote.
In finding that the law violated Title IX when applied to the 13-year-old, the court pointed to the fact she had been publicly living as a girl for more than five years and changed her name.
The state of West Virginia, too, had issued her a birth certificate listing her as female, the judge noted.
In the wake of last week’s ruling, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, a Republican, said he was “deeply disappointed” in the decision.
“I will keep fighting to safeguard Title IX. We must keep working to protect women’s sports so that women’s safety is secured and girls have a truly fair playing field,” the Attorney General said. “We know the law is correct and will use every available tool to defend it.”
