CHARLESTON, WV (WOWK) – The legal battle surrounding West Virginia’s law banning transgender athletes from competing in female sports in middle and high schools and colleges continues.

On Thursday, March 9, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey filed an application with the U.S. Supreme Court to vacate the ACLU-WV injunction pending appeal against the state’s law banning transgender athletes from competing in female sports in middle and high schools and colleges.

In January, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia Judge Joseph Goodwin ruled that the law was constitutional.

However, in February, ACLU-WV announced that a stay on the decision had been granted by the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to allow a a male-to-female transgender middle school student to try out for her school’s spring track and field team.

The “Save Women’s Sports Act” or HB 3293, was passed and signed into law during the 2021 legislative session. The law defined “girl” and “woman” as a person who is “biologically female,” therefore making male-to-female transgender girls ineligible to participate on girls’ school sports teams, according to the ruling.

After a male-to-female transgender middle school student was told she would not be allowed to try out for the girls’ track and cross-country teams due to the new law. According to the judge’s ruling today, the school had told the family she would be allowed if the law had not passed. At the time the law passed, there were no known transgender students playing school sports in West Virginia.