Bio
Becky is 15 years old and is in the 10th grade. When Becky isn’t hanging out with her friends, playing with her three dogs, or marching in her high school’s marching band, she’s throwing discus and shot put for her school’s track and field team. Becky comes from a family of runners. Her two older brothers and her mother are avid runners, and sharing that interest with her family made her excited about school sports.
Becky is transgender. Becky has known that she is a girl for as long as she can remember, and in 2019, she was diagnosed with gender dysphoria. At the onset of her puberty, Becky began taking puberty-delaying medication to prevent the distress that would occur if she experienced physiological changes inconsistent with her female gender. By fourth grade, she was recognized as the girl she is both at home and at school.
During the 2021 session, the West Virginia Legislature passed HB 3293, which categorically bans trans girls from participating on girls’ school sports teams and applies from middle school through college, at all levels of competition, even in intramural or non-competitive sports. Becky and her mom, Heather, wrote and called Gov. Jim Justice’s office several times asking for a veto, but Justice signed it into law despite tens of thousands of similar phone calls, emails, and letters.
In June 2021, Becky brought an as-applied challenge to H.B. 3293 based on Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause, and she moved for and was granted a preliminary injunction that allowed her to try out for middle school sports.
After the ACLU and other advocates successfully blocked H.B. 3293 in the lower courts, West Virginia and its anti-transgender allies asked the Supreme Court to overturn the injunction blocking H.B. 3293, even though the injunction only applied to Becky. On July 3, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case, and Becky and her legal team will have their day in Court in January 2026.
Becky said she is challenging the discriminatory law because she wants transgender kids to know that she has their back, and because she believes that all kids, including transgender kids, should be able to participate in and benefit from school sports . “Trans kids deserve better,” she said.