A federal judge has ruled that a Virginia school district cannot bar a transgender student from playing on a girls’ middle school tennis team while the student’s lawsuit against the school board is ongoing.
On August 16, Judge M. Hannah Lauck of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia issued the ruling against Hanover County Public Schools.
In granting the preliminary injunction, the judge stated that she found it likely the 11-year-old student, referred to in court documents as “Janie Doe,” would succeed in proving that the Hanover County School Board violated both Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution by banning the student from participating 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 determined that the district cannot prevent the student from trying out and playing on the girls’ tennis team this year while the lawsuit against the Hanover County school board moves forward.
The ruling originates from a lawsuit filed in July by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Virginia on behalf of the student—who was assigned male at birth but identifies as female—and their 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.
Shortly after, however, the school board requested medical documentation to confirm 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.
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.
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