Courageous Transgender Girl Medals At WVA State Track Meet

Although Becky Pepper-Jackson wasn't listed on the 2024 Indian's Track and Field Roster, at age 14, Becky has already won a place on our roster of iconic trans warriors

Becky Pepper-Jackson has always known she is a girl; her mom confirms, and has fought and won when West Virginia passed a law specifically denying her the right to play sports.

During a track meet in May, Becky, now a freshman at Bridgeport (W.V.) High took third place in the discus throw, making her the first trans student to medal in the history of the state.

In the Class AAA girls discus event, her 122-foot, 11-inch effort was good enough for bronze. With the third-place finish, Pepper-Jackson became the first trans student-athlete to also score points and finish on the medal podium at these championships. Her effort was 19 feet behind the winning throw by Cierra Groom, who won her second-straight state title in Class AAA, Out Sports reports.

Becky at age 11 as a middle school student, made headlines when she participated in the girls' sports team.

But state lawmakers had other plans, the ACLU reports. During the 2021 session, the West Virginia Legislature passed HB 3293 , which bans trans girls from participating in 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.

The ACLU and Lambda Legal challenged the law, but a federal judge ruled in favor of West Virginia. They then took the challenge to the  4th Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled the law unconstitutional. Not satisfied, WVa appealed to the US Supreme Court, but SCOTUS didn't accept the case and sent the lawsuit back to lower courts, where it is currently being litigated.

Through all of this, Becky has increasingly become the focus of right-wing anti trans propagandist sites like faux news, and the current governor's hatred of gender diversity.

Becky Pepper-Jackson, is a hero, and her accomplishments should be recognized, especially in the face of such adversity. After all, the girl just wants to play.

Bill forcing Trans Texans to detransition (or leave) goes to Abbott for signing

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Thursday, around midnight, the Texas Senate passed a bill that will destroy transgender people's lives, without having the word "transgender" appear in the bill.

HB 229 requires state IDs to reflect the sex assigned at birth, empowering the State Attorney General, Ken Paxton, to retroactively invalidate driver's licenses, IDs, and Birth Certificates that have had gender markers changed by court orders.

I use the term "detransition" for brevity to describe the actions that will occur come September first when this becomes law. Many trans Texans, like myself, went through the arduous process of, thearpy, obtaining a "carry letter," finding a endocrinologist for hormones, spending a year of "real life experences" and if we found ourselves happy in our authentic gender, begin the the proccess of legaly updating our state ID to reflect our authentic gender.

Then, and only then, after years of preparation, did I feel right about using the ladies' room. This bill was specifically written to force me to use the men's room or get out of Texas.

The word "transgender" does not appear anywhere in the bill, making it the most insidious attack on our community that I have ever seen.

The Texas Tribune article reporting on this bill correctly states that there are no criminal penalties written into HB 229. The state's first attempt to force a bathroom bill in 2017 was met with opposition from Mayors and state law enforcement who unequivalently stated that there was no need for it, as there had never been a transgender person arrested for trespassing in a restroom.

It took the state eight years and Abbott's right-wing radicalizing of the legislature, but they finally figured out how to write an anti-transgender bill and use existing law to enforce it.

It is a sad day for freedom of expression, but it's not over yet. There is another bill that will force medical providers to use conversion therapy instead of gender affirming care for those diagnosed with gender dysphoria. And a bill has been introduced to make it a state felony to present oneself as a gender other than the one we were identified at birth.

Regardless of how much Abbott and his thugs hate me, I will always be recognized as female, as I have since the 70s. It's just who I am. For myself and a lot of other Texans, this leaves us with one option, which is the true endgame of the fascists: to force us to leave Texas for a state where our existence isn't a felony.

So it's with a heavy heart that I bid adieu to the Blue Bonnet State. Goodbye to you.