TUCSON, Arizona (13News) – A federal judge on Thursday, July 20, granted a preliminary injunction against an Arizona law banning transgender athletes from participating in high school sports.

In April, two transgender girls filed a lawsuit against Arizona’s superintendent of public instruction, Tom Horn, over the Save Women’s Sports Act, which was enacted last year.

Following the judge’s ruling, both players will be able to play at their respective high schools.

“The court’s findings of fact support plaintiffs’ contention that a change in the status quo would result in very serious harm, and as a matter of law and fact, this is not a questionable case,” the judge wrote.

The judge’s full ruling can be found at the end of this article.

On July 10, in federal court in Tucson, The lawsuit was debated.

Plaintiffs sought a preliminary injunction, saying the ban could cause irreparable damage to the players. On July 20, the judge granted the preliminary injunction.

Both are on puberty inhibitors and would like to play soccer and volleyball at their respective schools.

Their lawyers argued that they were not athletically gifted, but defendants, including Mr. Horn, disagreed.

“It’s cosmically unfair to expect girls to have to compete with men in sports,” Horn told 13 News after the hearing. “Women should be able to compete with each other, so they have a chance to excel, get college scholarships, maybe compete in the Olympics, or do whatever they want.

“But once you put males in there, they’re devastated. They don’t have a chance to do that, and I think it’s completely unfair.”

13 News attempted to contact the plaintiffs, but was unable to locate them after the hearing.

State Public Instruction Superintendent Tom Horn, the sole defendant in a lawsuit challenging Arizona’s law banning biological boys from participating in women’s interdisciplinary sports teams, issued the following statement following today’s preliminary injunction by a federal judge:

“We intend to appeal this ruling, which will ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court and ruled in our favor,” Horn said.

Plaintiffs in this case argued that this involved only prepubescent boys, but we presented peer-reviewed studies that showed prepubescent boys had an advantage over girls in sports.

The only expert the plaintiffs presented was a doctor who made money doing sex reassignment surgery on children and who had no peer-reviewed research to back up his opinion. ”

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