BRIDGEPORT, W.Va. (AP) — High school athlete Becky Pepper-Jackson takes her spot in the throwing circle, blocking out any distractions, then spins and launches the discus into the dusk twilight.
Her focus is simple. Whether she’s trying to improve on her third-place finish at last year’s West Virginia track and field meet or ignoring naysayers who don’t want transgender girls on girls’ sports teams, the Bridgeport High School sophomore just wants to enjoy her time with her friends.
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Anything that might divert her attention was shelved. And, for now, that means not worrying about what the U.S. Supreme Court will rule on the case until early summer, as she is at the center of whether transgender girls can compete.
“I’m not here to get an advantage,” Pepper Jackson said. “I’ve been put down my whole life and people looked at me with evil eyes. I knew this was what I had to deal with.”
11 year old plaintiff
In 2021, Pepper-Jackson took a stand challenging a newly signed law in West Virginia that bans transgender athletes from competing in girls’ sports in middle school, high school and college. In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Pepper Jackson to continue playing in high school while the lawsuit continued.
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Now that she’s in high school, the lawsuit is nearing its conclusion. In January, the Supreme Court’s conservative majority, which has ruled against transgender Americans several times over the past year, said it would rule that state bans do not violate the Constitution or federal law Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in education.
A judge heard arguments in a second case in Idaho filed by Lindsey Hecox challenging the state’s first-ever ban on tryouts for Boise State’s women’s track and field and cross country teams. She was not selected for either team.
Pepper-Jackson is the only transgender person in West Virginia seeking to compete in a women’s sport. If the court rules that the state ban is legal, her current track season will be her farewell tour. It wasn’t something she considered.
“I can’t make decisions for them, so I just have to wait and see what they say,” she said. “I try not to think about if this is my last season.”
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West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey said he is confident the state will win.
“West Virginia law does not exclude anyone; it simply says that biological boys will compete against boys and biological girls will compete against girls,” McCaskey said in a statement. “On the athletic field, biological sex matters, gender identity does not.”
She has identified herself as a girl since she was a child
Pepper-Jackson has openly identified as a girl since she was 8 years old, long before that at home.
Her mother, Heather Jackson, said Becky was not like her two older brothers.
“I immediately noticed that Becky was different,” Jackson said. “When she gets old enough to say what she wants, whether it’s a toy, clothes or anything, her perspective is profound.”
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It all started when she was 3 years old when she asked for and got a makeup kit for Christmas. She also started wearing her mother’s shirts as dresses.
“She was very vocal about what she wanted to wear,” Jackson said. “I followed her lead from the beginning.”
When puberty began, Pepper-Jackson began taking puberty-blocking drugs.
“Becky did not go through male puberty,” said Aubrey Sparks, legal director of the West Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. “So when you hear ‘Well, that’s not fair. Trans kids have an advantage.'” But that’s not the case here. “
In sixth grade, Pepper Jackson followed the advice of her daughter’s track coach and switched from competitive distance running to track and field. Last year, as a high school freshman, she placed third in the discus and eighth in the shot put at the state meet.
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Critics are watching her closely, including Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey.
Five athletes from rival schools declined to play with Pepper-Jackson in 2024. A week later, the five received a standing ovation at a news conference in Charleston when Morrissey, then the state’s attorney general, announced that the state would challenge a federal appeals court ruling in Pepper-Jackson’s favor.
At the 2025 State Games, a female sprinter stood triumphantly on the podium wearing a T-shirt that read “Men Don’t Belong in Girls’ Sports.”
So far this season, things have been quieter. Pepper-Jackson won the discus and shot put in the first two events and cheered on her teammates in other events.
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“You learn a lot of core lessons from sports that you can’t learn anywhere else, like teamwork, sportsmanship,” she said.
Off the field, she plans to pursue music in college and become a band director.
others before her
Pepper-Jackson followed other transgender girls who excelled in high school track and field.
AB Hernandez won gold medals in the girls high jump and triple jump at last year’s California High School Games. Hernandez is now a senior at Jurupa Valley High School. Verónica Garcia won back-to-back 400m titles at Washington State in 2024 and 2025, and Ada Gallagher won the 200m title at the 2024 Oregon State meet.
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“I think it’s very encouraging,” Pepper-Jackson said.
Hernandez’s success has renewed calls from some parent groups and conservatives, including President Donald Trump, for the state to ban transgender girls from competing against other female athletes. California has a written law that allows students to participate in sports teams consistent with their gender identity, regardless of their sex at birth.
When Hernandez qualified for three events last year, there was a backlash that led the tournament’s governing body to allow an extra girl to compete in the events in which Hernandez competed and medal. This may be the first such rule change in the country.
Solid support system
Pepper Jackson’s biggest supporter is, of course, her mother. The two danced together after a recent practice, with Heather Jackson trotting on the grass to retrieve a discus after the athletes threw some balls.
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Jackson said her daughter “has handled the attention and scrutiny of her case with amazing grace, intelligence and education that is beyond anything I could have done at that age.”
Pepper-Jackson said others have told her they respect her, but she doesn’t understand that because “I don’t see the seriousness of this court case. I think it’s just common sense: Trans girls should be able to be on women’s sports teams. I think it’s simple.”
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Associated Press writer Sophie Austin in Sacramento, Calif., and AP video journalist Patrick Avtullah-Osagos in Clarksburg, W.Va., contributed to this report.
