Emotional funeral for Sala held in his Argentine hometown

Family, friends, supporters and former teammates paid tribute to striker Emiliano Sala in his small Argentine hometown on Saturday, almost four weeks after he died when the plane he was in crashed into the English Channel.

The 28-year-old Sala's body received a hero's welcome in Progreso where much of the grieving population paid their last respects to their soccer idol before the body was taken away for cremation.

"It is something that I still cannot understand or accept because it hurts so much," said Progreso resident Lucia Torres, who was in tears. "My town shut down on Jan. 21 and remains shut down to this day."

The car carrying the remains of Emiliano Sala leaves Progreso, Argentina, Saturday, Feb. 16, 2019. The Argentina-born forward died in an airplane crash in the English Channel last month when flying from Nantes in France to start his new career with English Premier League club Cardiff. (AP PhotoNatacha Pisarenko)

Sala was the best-know figure from Progreso, a town of several thousand inhabitants in Argentina's Santa Fe province, and was adored by many.

Cardiff City manager Neil Warnock, left, comforts Emiliano Sala's father, Horacio Sala at the cemetery in Santa Fe, Argentina, Saturday, Feb. 16, 2019. The Argentina-born forward died in an airplane crash in the English Channel last month when flying from Nantes in France to start his new career with English Premier League club Cardiff. (AP PhotoNatacha Pisarenko)

Mercedes Taffarel, mother of Argentine soccer player Emiliano Sala, right, is comfort by Nantes defender Nicolas Pallois during de burial of Emiliano Sala, at the cemetery in Santa Fe, Argentina, Saturday, Feb. 16, 2019. The Argentina-born forward died in an airplane crash in the English Channel last month when flying from Nantes in France to start his new career with English Premier League club Cardiff. (AP PhotoNatacha Pisarenko)

Cardiff City manager Neil Warnock, second righ, and Cardiff City CEO Ken Choo, right, applaud during the burial of Emiliana Sala, at the cemetery in Santa Fe, Argentina, Saturday, Feb. 16, 2019. The Argentina-born forward died in an airplane crash in the English Channel last month when flying from Nantes in France to start his new career with English Premier League club Cardiff. (AP PhotoNatacha Pisarenko)

Neighbors of Argentine soccer player Emiliano Sala, wait for his remains to depart for Santa Fe after his wake in Progreso, Argentina, Saturday, Feb. 16, 2019. The Argentina-born forward died in an airplane crash in the English Channel last month when flying from Nantes in France to start his new career with English Premier League club Cardiff. (AP PhotoNatacha Pisarenko)

Children wait for soccer player Emiliano Sala's coffin to depart for Santa Fe, after his wake in Progreso, Argentina, Saturday, Feb. 16, 2019. The Argentina-born forward died in an airplane crash in the English Channel last month when flying from Nantes in France to start his new career with English Premier League club Cardiff. (AP PhotoNatacha Pisarenko)

Relatives and friends of Argentine soccer player Emiliano Sala mourn after his wake in Progreso, Argentina, Saturday, Feb. 16, 2019. The Argentina-born forward died in an airplane crash in the English Channel last month when flying from Nantes in France to start his new career with English Premier League club Cardiff. (AP PhotoNatacha Pisarenko)

Relatives and friends of Argentine soccer player Emiliano Sala cry after his wake in Progreso, Argentina, Saturday, Feb. 16, 2019. The Argentina-born forward died in an airplane crash in the English Channel last month when flying from Nantes in France to start his new career with English Premier League club Cardiff. (AP PhotoNatacha Pisarenko)

Romina Sala, the sister Argentine soccer player Emiliano Sala, cries at the end of her brother's wake in Progreso, Argentina, Saturday, Feb. 16, 2019. The Argentina-born forward died in an airplane crash in the English Channel last month when flying from Nantes in France to start his new career with English Premier League club Cardiff. (AP PhotoNatacha Pisarenko)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is hearing arguments Tuesday over state laws barring transgender girls and women from playing on school athletic teams.

Lower courts ruled for the transgender athletes in Idaho and West Virginia who challenged the state bans, but the conservative-dominated Supreme Court might not follow suit.

In just the past year, the justices ruled in favor state bans on gender-affirming care for transgender youths and allowed multiple restrictions on transgender people to be enforced.

The legal fight is playing out amid a broad effort by President Donald Trump to target transgender Americans, beginning on the first day of his second term and including the ouster of transgender people from the military and declaring that gender is immutable and determined at birth.

The culture war cases come from Idaho and West Virginia, among the first of the more than two dozen Republican-led states that have banned transgender athletes from girls' and women’s teams.

The justices are evaluating claims of sex discrimination lodged by transgender people versus the need for fair competition for women and girls, the main argument made by the states.

In the first case, Lindsay Hecox, 25, sued over Idaho's first-in-the-nation ban for the chance to try out for the women's track and cross-country teams at Boise State University in Idaho. She didn't make either squad but competed in club-level soccer and running.

Becky Pepper-Jackson, a 15-year-old high school sophomore, has been taking puberty-blocking medication, publicly identified as a girl since age 8 and has been issued a West Virginia birth certificate recognizing her as female. She is the only transgender person who has sought to compete in girls' sports in West Virginia.

Pepper-Jackson has progressed from a back-of-the-pack cross-country runner in middle school to a statewide third-place finish in the discus in just her first year of high school.

Prominent women in sports have weighed in on both sides. Tennis champion Martina Navratilova, swimmers Summer Sanders and Donna de Varona and beach volleyball player Kerri Walsh-Jennings are supporting the state bans. Soccer stars Megan Rapinoe and Becky Sauerbrunn and basketball players Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart back the transgender athletes.

The high-court arguments are expected to focus on whether the sports bans violate the Constitution or the landmark federal law known as Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in education.

In 2020, the Supreme Court ruled LGBTQ people are protected by a landmark federal civil rights law that prohibits sex discrimination in the workplace, finding that “sex plays an unmistakable role” in employers’ decisions to punish transgender people for traits and behavior they otherwise tolerate.

But last year, the six conservative justices on the nine-member court declined to apply the same sort of analysis when they upheld state bans on gender-affirming care for transgender minors.

The states supporting the prohibitions on transgender athletes argue there is no reason to extend the ruling barring workplace discrimination to Title IX, which dramatically increased opportunities for girls and women in school sports.

Lawyers for Pepper-Jackson argue that the law protects people like their client from discrimination. They are asking for a ruling that would apply to the unique circumstances of her early transition. In Hecox's case, her lawyers want the court to dismiss the case because she has forsworn trying to play on women's teams.

Despite the small numbers of transgender athletes, the issue has taken on outsize importance. The NCAA and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committees banned transgender women from women’s sports after Trump, a Republican, signed an executive order aimed at barring their participation.

The public generally is supportive of the limits. An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll conducted in October 2025 found that about 6 in 10 U.S. adults “strongly” or “somewhat” favored requiring transgender children and teenagers to only compete on sports teams that match the sex they were assigned at birth, not the gender they identify with, while about 2 in 10 were “strongly” or “somewhat” opposed and about one-quarter did not have an opinion.

About 2.1 million adults, or 0.8%, and 724,000 people age 13 to 17, or 3.3%, identify as transgender in the U.S., according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law.

A decision is expected by early summer.

This story has been corrected to show the basketball player’s surname is Bird, not Byrd.

Follow the AP's coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.

FILE - Protestors hold signs during a rally at the state capitol in Charleston, W.Va., on March 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Chris Jackson, file)

Becky Pepper-Jackson poses for a photograph outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)