Meet the 13-year-old West Virginian suing to join her school's track team

[pasayten]

Chris, you can still love and accept all people and still have social boundaries that respect all sides... I still stand by my boundary of no penises in a womens restroom or locker room. Separate facilities do not mean we don't love someone. More that we are respecting the boundaries of the intended group. Nothing more, nothing less. No amount of selecting and choosing snippets of text and putting them into a word salad will change that. It's going to take awhile for societies infrastructure to catch up with all the newly required facilities to make ALL folks feel safe and comfortable.

What is to become of women's sports??? Are we going to need asterisks on all the record holders? We going to need 3 leagues? cis male, cis female, and cis/trans anybody? Don't know... Maybe it will come to that to be fair to all.

[Fun CH]

Sports are so arbitrary in that the function is for fitness psychological and social value, then we added the competition aspect of it.

Why are school competitive sports so important as to be exclusive of gender identify that undermines the goals of sport?

Here is a short quote. I suggest reading the whole article.

https://www.sthugh.net/lgbtq-affirming-scripture

God loves LGBTQ people
​
Nothing can separate us from the love of God. (Rom 8:38) This message is for all people, including LGBTQ individuals.

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God did not make a mistake in creating LGBTQ people. “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” (Psalm 139:13-14) Sexual identity and gender identity are components of a person’s personality, and as such are part of who God made each of us to be.

​

All people are justified through Christ, including LGBTQ people. “God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them” (2 Corinthians 5:19), therefore, “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.” (Romans 5:1, 2). This is not to say that being LGBTQ is a sin, but if it were, it would certainly be forgiven.



All people have been intentionally created by God, including LGBTQ people. “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.” (Isaiah 43:1)

​

On Inclusion
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God welcomes people of all genders and sexual identities. “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28) Also “…God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean.” (Acts 10:28) Jesus gladly socialized with people that the religious establishment disapproved of. (Matt 9:11)

​

The Church needs its LGBTQ members. “The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:12-13)

​

The early church welcomed non-gender-conforming people. One of the first recorded baptisms by the apostles was of an Ethiopian eunuch. (Acts 8:27)

​

Jesus warned against using anti-gay slurs. The NIV translation of Matt 5:22 reads “anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court”. The original Greek text does not include “sister”, and the word “raca” is most likely a transliteration of the Aramaic word “rakkah”, which is the feminine form of the adjective that means “to be tender, weak, or soft”, so this would be comparable to calling a man a “sissy” (or worse). [8], [9]





On Relationships
​
Love is a gift from God: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” (Galatians 5:22-23)

​

God made us to be in relationship with Him and with each other: "it is bad for man to be alone" (Genesis 2:18) It would be inconsistent with God’s loving nature to create people who were gay and then condemn them to a life of loneliness. Heterosexual marriage is presented as an example (rather than a definition) of how God puts people in relationships; in Genesis 2:24: “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.” The clause “that is why” points back to 2:18.

​

God creates community and families, uniting people together: "So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." (Matthew 19:5). God can and does create unions with all types of people, including LGBTQ individuals.

​

Celibacy is good if one is called to it, but it is not for everyone (Mt. 19:11-12); marriage is good, too ("better to be married than to burn with passion," 1 Corinthians 7:9).

​

Examples of love between people of the same gender in the Bible:

​

David and Jonathan. “After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself.” (1 Samuel 18:1) David says of Jonathan: “Your love for me was wonderful, more wonderful than that of women.” (2 Samuel 1:26).

​

Ruth and Naomi - Ruth expresses her devotion to Naomi with, “Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God . Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” (Ruth 1:16-17).

​

The Centurion and his servant (Matt 8:5-10). The word used for “servant” here, “pais”, was commonly used to describe a servant who was a romantic partner of the master. [6]

​

​

On Gender
​
All people, including LGBTQ individuals, were created in God’s image: "So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." (Genesis 1:27, NSRV) The use of the two primary genders in this passage is likely a “merism”, a figure of speech by which a single thing (in this case, humanity) is referred to by a phrase that lists several of its parts, but does not list all components. In the other creation passages, day and night are specified, but not twilight; seas and land are mentioned, but not creeks or marshes; vegetation on land but no reference to algae. [10] This passage also indicates that God is not limited to a single gender.

​

[pasayten]

We agree on more than that but you seem desperate to despise me. I wonder why?

I don't despise you... Just disagree with some of your opinions and the manner in which you express yourself... It severely limits your effectiveness in getting folks to listen to your point of view.

[dorankj]

We agree on more than that but you seem desperate to despise me. I wonder why?

[pasayten]

And your position is…..?

Surprisingly, probably one thing we may agree on...

I raised daughters so the issue is especially important to me...
No penises in women's restrooms or locker rooms. Period.

[dorankj]

And your position is…..?

[pasayten]

Well some of us still work for a living, maybe answer the question?

Yes, it is one of many major issues for me.

[dorankj]

Well some of us still work for a living, maybe answer the question?

[pasayten]

Is this a major issue to you Ray? Or do you like to just stir the pot with people?

Ken... Crawl out of your hole once in awhile... Maybe you should of showed up at the School Board Candidates forum put on by the Twisp Grange last week. It was very informative to listen to each candidate give their background and answer questions. Especially those from the audience. You might of then realized that transgender males in female sports was a major issue and difference among the candidates.

[dorankj]

Is this a major issue to you Ray? Or do you like to just stir the pot with people?

[pasayten]

This has become a major issue among the candidates in the Methow Valley School Board Election...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/meet- ... ee8b&ei=22

Meet the 13-year-old West Virginian suing to join her school's track team
Story by Jo Yurcaba

Becky Pepper-Jackson, 13, sat in a courtroom Friday morning while lawyers argued over a law in her home state of West Virginia that would ban her from running on the girls’ cross-country and track teams at her middle school.

The hearing in front of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals was the most recent update in her more than two-year legal battle, which began in May 2021, when she was 11, a month after West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice signed a bill that bars transgender girls from playing on girls sports teams in middle school, high school and college.

The appeals court will decide whether the law will take effect, and its decision could also start a chain of events that could land Becky’s case in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Becky has been allowed to run on her school’s cross country team and throw discus and shot put on the track and field team since the appeals court reinstated a previous injunction against the law in February. The state of West Virginia appealed that verdict to the Supreme Court, which in April rejected reinstating the ban during the lawsuit.

Becky’s mom, Heather, said Becky will often stay late at track and field practice. Sometimes she’ll even practice discus and shot put in their backyard in the rain.

“She likes to do the best in everything, be it algebra or running or shot put or discus,” Heather said. “She tries to excel in everything that she does, just like any other kid.”

Becky said she’s continued her fight after all this time because she loves playing sports.

“I want to keep going because this is something I love to do, and I’m not just going to give it up,” she said. “This is something I truly love, and I’m not going to give up for anything.”

‘It shouldn’t be that hard to be a kid’
Running has always been a family sport for Becky. She has run with her mom and her two brothers since she was a small child, though her running routine has changed slightly since one of her brothers went to high school and Heather is waiting on a knee replacement.

In the meantime, Becky, who is in eighth grade, has thrown herself into discus and shot put. She said she does two types of training for it. Sometimes, she works on her form while throwing lighter or bigger discs or spheres. Most of the time, she said she and her teammates go into what’s called “the pit,” and they get to throw with the high school students. She said she likes how discus and shot put are “polar opposites.”

“With shot put, it’s more like just throw it really hard and hope for the best. You have to be really aggressive,” Becky said. “But in discus, it’s very graceful and all about speed instead, which is what I like best about it.”

West Virginia was among the first states to restrict some or all trans student athletes from playing on school sports teams consistent with their gender identities. Just days after Justice signed the bill in April 2021, he was unable to provide an example of a trans student athlete in the state trying to gain an unfair advantage.

Rather, Justice relied on his experience as a sports coach to justify the law. “I coach a girls’ basketball team, and I can tell you that we all know what an absolute advantage boys would have playing against girls,” he told MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle at the time.

Heather said she and Becky decided to file the lawsuit because, “if she didn’t start the fight, who’s going to?”

She said their lives haven’t changed much over the last two years, though they are more aware of their surroundings when they’re out in public, since their photos are online and some people might recognize them.

“At school, her friends still treat her exactly the same, her teachers treat her exactly the same,” Heather said. “She’s just a regular kid that just wants to play, so that hasn’t changed at all.”

Ahead of the hearing Friday, Heather said they were hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.

“We don’t like to be in the spotlight,” Heather said. “We’re just country people from West Virginia, so it’s a little overwhelming. I’m nervous for her, because I know what joy she gets from doing her sports, and every kid needs sports. It’s just a moral foundation they need to get. They learn responsibility, they learn camaraderie, they learn that people depend on them. And I see how much fun she has.”

In the last three years, 23 states in addition to West Virginia have passed similar restrictions on trans student athletes, with many of their supporters making arguments similar to Justice — that trans girls have an inherent advantage over cisgender girls, or those who aren’t transgender. Courts have temporarily blocked laws in West Virginia, Idaho and Arizona. A court has also permanently blocked Montana’s law as it applies to colleges, but not for K-12 schools.

Becky said it’s been “disappointing” to watch state after state pass trans athlete restrictions during her lawsuit. Heather said she gets upset “because it seems to be the issue du jour.”

“Politicians are out there fighting for votes, and they just jump on a bandwagon without ever researching it for themselves, when if people would just do their own research, the biology and the science is out there to prove what we’re looking for,” Heather said. “We just want to be accepted, and she just wants to be a kid. It shouldn’t be that hard to be a kid.”

An ‘equal and fair playing field’
The American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal, which are representing Becky, argue that West Virginia’s law is discriminatory and violates Title IX, a federal law that protects students from sex-based discrimination, and the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

During Friday’s hearing in front of the 4th Circuit, Becky’s lawyer, Joshua Block of the ACLU, said Becky has received puberty-blocking medication, which has prevented her from going through testosterone-driven puberty and receiving any potential physical advantage. West Virginia’s law, he argued, “goes out of its way to select criteria that do not create athletic advantage but do a perfect job of accomplishing the function of excluding transgender students based on their transgender status.”

The law “could have been drafted to actually adopt criteria that are relevant to athletic performance, but it doesn’t,” Block argued. “It picks criteria that define being transgender.”

Lindsay See, the solicitor general for West Virginia, argued that the district court, in ruling in favor of the law, “got it right that sports is a uniquely strong case for differences rooted in biology and call for sex-based distinctions to help ensure an equal and fair playing field.”

See also noted that experts for both the state and the plaintiff established that there is at least a slight inherent physical difference between trans girls and cisgender girls even prior to puberty. This, See argued, justifies the law. However, Block argued in rebuttal that the state’s expert conceded that any differences before puberty are “minimal.”

Block estimated that the court could release its decision in the next three to six months.

“We really hope that the judges were able to recognize this for what it was, which was discrimination against trans girls solely based on the fact that they’re trans,” he said in a phone call after Friday’s hearing.

Regardless of how the court decides, an appeal is almost guaranteed. Whichever party does appeal will have the opportunity to appeal to the entire 4th Circuit or to the Supreme Court. The ACLU is also litigating a similar law in Idaho and is awaiting a decision from the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Depending on the outcome, that case could also be appealed to the high court.

One of the 4th Circuit judges acknowledged the stakes of the outcome at the end of Friday’s hearing.

“I want to thank all counsel for their arguments today, realizing we’re probably only a waystation on the way to the Supreme Court,” Judge G. Steven Agee said.

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This article was originally published on NBCNews.com