Supreme Court ruling on trans athletes can't change my daughter | Opinion
My 16-year-old daughter, Becky Pepper-Jackson, wants what most kids want: to be herself and play the sport she loves with her friends. As a transgender girl, that simple wish took her all the way to the Supreme Court, where the justices ruled that our home state of West Virginia can bar her from playing school sports with her friends and peers. I always knew that no matter what the court decided, Becky would be a winner because she has shown all of us how to love, accept and be ourselves no matter the outcome.
I never imagined sitting next to my child listening to our country's highest court debate her future and watching her become a leader in the fight for our trans kids' civil rights. As mothers, we want to protect our children from the big, bad world as long as we can. We hope and pray they can keep the innocence of youth as long as possible. But my Becky had to grow up fast.
It seems like just yesterday her older siblings were pushing her in the stroller on our family runs. In a blink, she was running on a team. When she first started, she was always last or next to last, but that didn't matter to her. All she wanted was to be out there with her friends.
For most other kids, that's all they have to worry about. For Becky, there are the spectators who show up not to cheer but to protest, threaten or intimidate. Adults seek her out on the field and the sidelines, deliberately using the wrong pronouns or name. These are parents and grandparents who would do anything to protect their own children from this same kind of bullying.
'Don't judge them like they judge us'
At my age, I know where this kind of ugliness can lead. But Becky has no use for my cynicism. She just wants to see the good in people, and she looks for it even when those around her have given her every reason not to.
One of her favorite things to remind me is, "Don't judge them like they judge us." Every day, she shows me how to smile at anger.
But her biggest, most beautiful smile is the one she wears when she is out on the field. That smile makes everything – the long meets, the early morning practices, the miles and miles we drive across West Virginia for competitions – worth it.
Becky's smile is also her most powerful response to the cruelty coming from the sidelines. She keeps her head high. She cheers everyone on. That is what a good teammate looks like. That is what a winner looks like.
When I watch from the bleachers, that's who I see. A teenager with an extraordinary capacity for kindness and perseverance. A kid who loves her team, her coaches and her school, and who never asked to be in this fight.
My daughter wants to be herself. The Supreme Court can't take that away.
I am painfully aware that for the rest of her life, Becky will encounter those who fear her, misunderstand her or refuse to see her for who she is. That is a truth I have had to make peace with.
But she will grow into her own woman – and how she has carried herself through all of this leaves no doubt about the champion she is becoming.
The Supreme Court's decision does not change who Becky is. It cannot take away her connection to the sport, the lessons it has taught her or the friends she has made. All that she's learned about leadership, working together, challenging herself, managing disappointment and building confidence is wisdom she will have forever – lessons we both are drawing upon in this moment.
Whatever comes next, Becky will be Becky. Her bravery, her joy and her stubborn insistence on seeing the good in people shine as brightly as ever, and those attributes are a beacon for every other kid out there, and for plenty of adults, too.
I won't pretend this outcome doesn't hurt. But in my book, Becky had already won the moment she stepped onto the field, long before the courtroom was ever part of the story. She simply showed up to play. Taking on something bigger than herself just came with it.
But she never flinched, and she's still smiling.
Heather Jackson is the mother of Becky Pepper-Jackson, the high school girl at the center of the U.S. Supreme Court case West Virginia State Board of Education v. B.P.J., challenging the state law banning transgender girls and women from participation in K-12 and collegiate athletics.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Supreme Court ruling on trans athletes can't change my daughter | Opinion
Reporting by Heather Jackson, Opinion contributor / USA TODAY
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect
This story was originally published June 30, 2026 at 12:26 PM.