Federal judge allows female soccer player to defend West Virginia ban on transgender athletes

A federal judge will allow a West Virginia State University women’s soccer player to intervene against transgender athletes who in a lawsuit are demanding the right to play women’s sports in the state.

District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin said in an order issued Wednesday that Lainey Armistead, a scholarship athlete for the Division II Yellow Jackets, “may intervene permissively” to defend the constitutionality of the state law, known as the Protect Women’s Sports Act.

Judge Goodwin, appointed by President Clinton, wrote in his opinion that Ms. Armstrong “will add a perspective not represented by any of the current defendants” about the West Virginia law, which limits participation in women’s sports in K-12 schools and colleges to competitors like herself who were born female…. (Excerpts from the Washington Times)