This story was originally published by the WND News Center.
Members of a women's swim team at Roanoke College in Virginia could end up being paid damages because the school subjected them, against the law, to having a male member on their team.
That's according to a ruling from Attorney General Jason Miyares.
Fox News Digital reported there are multiple lawsuits now pending over damages from women or girls on teams for females when the school involved demands they allow a male on the team.
But none has yet reached the stage of determining financial damages.
The Roanoke case may add light to that dispute now.
The report explained Miyares' investigation followed the school's demand that a male swimmer, who identified himself as female, be on the women's team in 2023.
"Miyares concluded that the college denied the female swimmers accommodations, advantages, and privileges on the basis of sex, caused the women emotional, physical, and dignitary harms and violated the Virginia Human Rights Act," the report explained.
He also suggested the state law allows the women swimmers who were injured to seek financial damages, as the school violated the Virginia Human Rights Act.
"A private complainant who has received a notice of right to file a civil action may file a civil action under the Act for compensatory and punitive damages, as well as injunctive relief," the report said.
Fox reported it obtained documents confirming that six women on the school's women's team "applied for May Term Travel Courses run by the school three days before a press conference took place in which some expressed their displeasure with having a transgender swimmer on their team."
Miyares noted, "Two weeks after the press conference, the Roanoke professors in charge of the Japan and Greece travel terms rejected the female swimmers' applications."
But, the report said, state law bars "unlawful discrimination and retaliation by educational institutions on the basis of sex" and said, "No educational institution may 'refuse, withhold from, or deny' any accommodations, advantages, or privileges on the basis of sex."
The result, the report said, affirmed, that, "Any implementation of a discriminatory policy would be considered discrimination under the law."
Roanoke's practice "that forces women participating in sex-separated collegiate sports to compete against individuals with the biological advantages of male puberty deprives those women of accommodations, advantages, and privileges made available to others on the basis of sex and violates the VHRA."
Miyares, about his report, said, "Men and women in competitive sports are separated for a reason. A male who has undergone puberty has a significant undeniable athletic advantage over females that no intervention can undo… the women's swim team endured, and is still enduring, emotional, physical and dignitary harm because of Roanoke College's failure to follow the law."
School officials at the time claimed they were working on "fairness" in athletics, but also insisted on an agenda of "supporting" the LGBT agenda.
Multiple Roanoke women's swim team members now are part of a lawsuit over the controversy.
