GOP attorney general throws support behind 8th-graders who protested trans girl’s right to compete

In West Virginia, the political ambitions of two candidates for governor have collided with the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, a teenage trans student-athlete, and a group of her classmates who protested her participation in a track and field event.

Republican candidate for governor Patrick Morrisey, who is also the red state’s attorney general, filed a brief on Wednesday in support of four female middle school students who protested their trans classmate’s inclusion in a track and field competition on April 18.

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Eighth-grade trans student-athlete Becky Pepper-Jackson sued West Virginia over the state’s law barring female trans students from participating in girls’ sports and won. The appeals court ruled the ban violates Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in schools, and ordered Pepper-Jackson to be reinstated on her team.

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The ruling did not overturn the state’s so-called Save Women’s Sports Act in its entirety. Morrisey said he plans to appeal the narrow ruling.

With Pepper-Jackson back on the field for a competition on April 18, five of her classmates forfeited their shot-put event in protest. The girls were then barred by their school district from competing in the same event at their next track and field meet, according to a news release from the AG’s office. Now four of them are suing.

In his amicus brief in support of the four girls’ lawsuit filed against the Harrison County Board of Education, AG Morrisey wrote, “Their actions at the earlier track meet were not disruptive or aggrandizing. They were the quiet demonstration of the student-athletes’ evident unhappiness with the competitive consequences of a federal appellate court’s decision.”

The friend of the court brief filing offered Morrissey, who is locked in a tight primary race for the governorship with MAGA candidate Chris Miller, photo-op evidence of his anti-trans bona fides. Morrissey was joined by parents and one of Lincoln Middle School’s track team protesters, 14-year-old Emmy Salerno, for the announcement.

Trans issues are at the center of the hotly contested GOP primary, with Morrisey facing charges from Miller that he’s a “pro-trans liberal” in sheep’s clothing, despite the AG’s active support for the Save Women’s Sports Act and other anti-trans legislation in the state.

One ad released by Miller’s campaign last month accused Morrisey of lobbying for a “woke hospital” that wanted federal funds for “sex changes for minors.”

“His pronoun? Money-grubbing liberal,” the voiceover intoned, accusing Morrisey of “mutilating kids for cash.” 

Morrisey “transitioned from lobbyist to politician, masquerading as one of us,” the voiceover charges. “But the real Pat Morrisey is a pro-trans liberal.” 

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