“I am afraid that if I continue my lawsuit, I will personally be subjected to harassment that will negatively impact my mental health, my safety, and my ability to graduate as soon as possible,” plaintiff Lindsay Hecox wrote in a legal filing.
A transgender woman from Idaho who filed a lawsuit against the state’s first-of-its-kind ban on transgender women in sports has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to dismiss her lawsuit.
According to Boise State Public Radio, the complaint was filed on behalf of plaintiff Lindsay Hecox in 2020. In court filings, Hecox indicated that she challenged the law so that she could run cross-country and potentially join the track and field team at Boise State University.
Earlier in the same year, though, Idaho became the first state in the country to enact legislation barring transgender woman from playing on women’s sports teams. Notably, this provision is exclusive to transgender women and does not extend to transgender men and boys.
Idaho state Rep. Barbara Ehardt, a former collegiate basketball coach and Republican lawmaker representing Idaho Falls, said that the statute, sometimes still referred to as House Bill 500, was designed to curtal access to sports she feels must be reserved for “biological” girls and women.
“You see,” Ehardt told the House in a 2020 address, “in sports, we have requirements. We have standards, and it [sic] is not based on feelings and […] we have these in order to participate, to ensure fairness for all.”
In her motion to dismiss, Hecox said she fears that she could be subjected to harassment if she brings her case before the conservative-dominated Supreme Court.
“I am afraid that if I continue my lawsuit, I will personally be subjected to harassment that will negatively impact my mental health, my safety, and my ability to graduate as soon as possible,” Hecox wrote in a legal filing.
“Thus, after deep consideration, and despite the positive role that women’s team sports have played in my life, including at BSU, I have made the extremely difficult decision to cease playing women’s sports in any context covered by [House Bill 500] and to dismiss my case,” Hecox said.
Boise State Public Radio notes that Hecox never qualified to join the university’s cross-country and track teams; her priority, at least for the present, is maintaining a healthy, active lifestyle.
“Living a healthy and safe life is also a priority of mine—one which, in turn, will help me graduate,” she said.
Idaho’s solicitor general is expected to protest the motion for dismissal, citing the time, money, and work that the state has invested in defense of its law.
Sources
Idaho Laws Rolling Back Transgender Rights Take Effect Amid Legal Scrutiny
Idaho transgender sports lawsuit plaintiff closes case
Trans Idaho athlete tells U.S. Supreme Court she’s dropping her lawsuit.
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