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The Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday that states may bar transgender athletes from girls’ sports, in a continuation of the Trump administration’s attacks on trans rights. The conservative judges’ written opinions were replete with transphobia — and even the dissenting, liberal position from the court failed to fundamentally uphold the rights of transgender athletes.

The court ruled that laws in West Virginia and Idaho barring transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports do not violate the Constitution’s equal protection clause or Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools. “Schools may determine eligibility for women’s and girls’ sports based on biological sex,” the ruling states.

The West Virginia case rested on a lawsuit by Becky Pepper-Jackson, who was 11 years old when she challenged West Virginia’s “Save Women’s Sports Act” in 2021 to be able to continue to play and compete in sports. B.P.J. is a trans athlete who began to transition at 10 years old.

Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who coaches girls’ basketball despite the fact that he’s been accused by multiple women of sexual assault, delivered the majority opinion. He ruled that states may prohibit transgender women and girls from competing on female sports teams and that such bans do not violate Title IX or the Equal Protection Clause. His majority opinion repeatedly states that “sex” as referred to in Title IX can only mean “biological sex” and refers to the supposed “inherent physical differences” between “biological men” and women.

Kavanaugh’s opinion describes transgender women and girls as “biological males” and “boys who........

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