Judge: Virginia School District Must Allow Transgender Student on Girls’ Tennis Team

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A federal judge has ruled that a Virginia school district may not prevent a transgender student from playing on a girls’ middle school tennis team while the student’s lawsuit against the school board continues.

Judge M. Hannah Lauck of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia handed down the ruling against Hanover County Public Schools on Aug. 16.

In issuing the preliminary injunction, the judge said she found the 11-year-old student—identified in court documents only as “Janie Doe”—would likely succeed in the claim that the Hanover County School Board violated both Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution when it barred the student from playing on the sports team during the 2024–2025 school year.

“Janie has established that the Board excluded her, on the basis of sex, from participating in an education program when it denied her application to try out for (and if selected, to participate on) her school’s girls’ tennis team,” Lauck wrote.

The judge concluded that the district may not bar the student from trying out and playing on the girls’ tennis team this year while the lawsuit filed against the Hanover County school board proceeds.

The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Virginia in July on behalf of the student—who was born a male but identifies as female—and his parents.

According to the lawsuit, the student, who “has a gender dysphoria diagnosis” and has identified as a girl since he was 7 years old, tried out for and earned a place on the girls’ tennis team as a sixth-grader in August 2023.

However, shortly afterward, the school board sought medical documentation evidencing the student’s “consistent expression as a female.”

About a month later, the school board “voted unanimously against permitting [Janie] to participate on the middle school girls’ tennis team,” the lawsuit states.

School Board Defends Its Decision

The lawsuit alleges that the school board discriminated against the transgender student in violation of the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause and Title IX, a federal law designed to protect females from discrimination based on sex.

The school board has said its decision not to allow the student to play on the girls’ team was based on ensuring fairness in competition.

It further argued in court documents that the decision was in line with the 2022 Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) model policies, which state that schools may organize sports teams based on biological sex.

Lauck rejected the board’s position, writing that its actions “contravene the strong public interest in educational institutions being free of discrimination of all kinds, including on the basis of gender identity.”

“Because Janie Doe faces a litany of harms ranging from medical regression, social isolation and stigma, financial and logistical burdens, and the dignitary harms of either ‘outing’ her as transgender or communicating that transgender students are not welcomed or encouraged to participate in school athletics at all, Janie Doe has made more than a clear showing that the discrimination has harmed her,” Lauck wrote.

Wyatt Rolla, senior transgender rights attorney with ACLU of Virginia, welcomed the ruling, saying in a statement that the student “just wants to try out with her friends for the team she already made last year” and that “there is no evidence to support the fear that trans athletes have a categorical advantage over cisgender ones.”

Rolla accused the school board of “singling out” and bullying the transgender student.

“This ruling should make every school board—not just Hanover—think twice before using VDOE’s model policies to justify discrimination against its students,” Rolla said.

A Hanover County Public Schools spokesperson declined to comment.

Update: This article has been updated with a response from Hanover County Public Schools.