Trans youth athletes vow to keep playing after US supreme court sports ruling

AB Hernandez, a transgender athlete, competed in three qualifying events at the CIF state track championship in Clovis, California on 30 May 2026. Photograph: Los Angeles Times/Getty Images View image in fullscreen AB Hernandez, a transgender athlete, competed in three qualifying events at the CIF state track championship in Clovis, California on 30 May 2026. Photograph: Los Angeles Times/Getty Images Trans youth athletes vow to keep playing after US supreme court sports ruling Justices upheld laws in West Virginia and Idaho, boosting similar restrictions in 25 other states Transgender youth athletes have vowed to keep playing sports and fighting for equal access to teams after the US supreme court ruled in favor of laws banning their participation. The court’s conservative supermajority on Tuesday upheld laws in West Virginia and Idaho prohibiting trans girls from participating in women’s teams, finding the laws were constitutional. The ruling advances one of the central causes of anti-LGBTQ+ advocates, who have been pushing to curtail the rights of trans people across society, including in education, employment, healthcare and the military. The decision will support laws in 25 other states that also restrict trans youth participation in sports. But LGBTQ+ advocates say the immediate legal impact is narrow and does not create a national ban. More than 20 states have inclusive policies allowing trans students to play on teams that match their gender. “We’re not backing down,” said Nereyda Hernandez, a California trans rights advocate. She is the mother of AB Hernandez, who became one of the most well-known trans youth athletes in the US when Donald Trump began directly targeting her last year on social media. “I’ve always said, you’re not going to intimidate me or bully my kid out of sports.” “Sports have just meant the absolute world to me,” said AB, a 17-year-old track-and-field athlete from Jurupa Valley, a city east of Los Angeles. She recently graduated high school. “If I had been forced to join the boys’ team, it would just be so uncomfortable for all of us. They’re failing to see on my girls’ team, everyone is super happy and super nice and no one cares. We’re just high school girls trying to have fun and play a sport we all love.” In 2020, Idaho became the first state to adopt a law categorically banning trans women and girls from women’s sports teams. In Little v Hecox, Lindsay Hecox, a trans college student blocked from track, challenged Idaho’s law. The second case, West Virginia v BPJ, stemmed from a lawsuit brought by Becky Pepper-Jackson, a 15-year-old trans girl and track athlete. “Politicians in my state passed a law banning me – the only transgender student athlete in the state – from playing on the team that reflects who I really am,” Becky said in a recent speech. The case, she said, is “just one part of a plan to push transgender people like me out of the public life entirely”. ‘We need to stay strong’ States such as Californi