CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia's ban on transgender athletes competing in female school sports is constitutional and can remain in place, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

"I recognize that being transgender is natural and is not a choice," U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Goodwin wrote in his decision. "But one's sex is also natural, and it dictates physical characteristics that are relevant to athletics."

The American Civil Liberties Union and its West Virginia chapter filed the lawsuit in 2021 on behalf of an 11-year-old transgender girl who hoped to compete in middle school cross-country in Harrison County. The lawsuit named the state and county boards of education and their superintendents as defendants.