A pair of trans teens in New Hampshire sued last summer over a state law preventing them from participating in girls sports. Now they are attempting to expand that lawsuit to the federal government.
The teenagers asked the court on Wednesday to add Mr. Trump and members of his administration as defendants in a lawsuit the students filed last summer regarding their eligibility to play girls’ sports at school. The state had enacted a law in August barring transgender girls in grades 5 through 12 from participating in girls’ sports, and the two students initially sued their schools and state education officials, asking the court to rule that they could compete on teams that aligned with their gender identity.
Their court filing on Wednesday appears to be the first time that the constitutionality of Mr. Trump’s executive order, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” has been challenged in court.
The state law was stayed so that the two teens could continue to participate in girls sports while the lawsuit is pending, but the executive order by Trump seems to have put a stop to that.
A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction in September allowing the two athletes, Parker Tirrell, 16, and Iris Turmelle, 15, to play on girls’ sports teams while their lawsuit was pending. Mr. Trump’s directive puts that ability at new risk, the filing states.
“I played soccer — nothing bad happened,” Parker, a sophomore at Plymouth Regional High School, said in an interview this week. “Not everyone was happy about it, but it seemed like the people I was playing against weren’t overly concerned.” But when she got home from school last Wednesday, she said, “my mom told me that Trump had signed an executive order banning trans girls from playing sports.”
It’s likely no one expressed their concern because they know what happens when you complain, i.e. either nothing or you get punished for being a transphobe. The other teen, Iris, is hoping to try out for the girls’ tennis or track teams.
“The chance to try out for tennis means new teammates, new friends, and a sense of fun and belonging,” Iris said. “I just want the same opportunities as other girls at my school.”
Uh, right, except no other girls at your school have the option of competing in girls sports with a boys’ physical advantages. This isn’t arguable. Boys have obvious physical advantages such that a moderately decent male athlete would immediately be a top athlete when competing on the girls team. This is how Lia Thomas won the NCAA women’s swimming championships despite being ranked much lower as a male athlete just a few years earlier.
These differences are why we have boys and girls sports in the first place. The physical differences are significant enough that if we didn’t create these categories female athletes would rarely be able to win anything against boys of the same age. So letting a boy compete with the girls is really asking the girls to lose a match or a podium position at a track meet to someone with an unfair categorical advantage. That’s no way to make new friends.
None of the stories I’ve seen indicate whether these teens have been using puberty blockers or taking hormones. The implication is that doesn’t matter. If they self-identify are girls, we’re all supposed to go along with that and pretend male puberty isn’t relevant. Only CNN mentions that there is an underlying controversy here.
The participation of transgender girls and women in sports has raised questions about the balance between inclusion and fairness on the playing field. Twenty-five states across the country have passed laws banning transgender youth from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity
No doubt the plan here is to find another left-leaning judge who will issue a nationwide TRO to block yet another Trump executive order.
Chris Erchull, senior staff attorney at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, one of the plaintiffs’ representatives, said the executive order and others “amount to a coordinated campaign to prevent transgender people from functioning in society.”
“School sports are an important part of education — something no child should be denied simply because of who they are,” Erchull said in a news release. “Our clients Parker and Iris simply want to go to school, learn, and play on teams with their peers.”
The word “peers” is doing a lot of work in that sentence. These teens are biological boys who have “peers” on the boys soccer and boys tennis team, not on the girls teams.
Hopefully whatever nonsense a judge orders in this case can be appealed and overturned quickly. If these individuals need to compete, let them compete on the boys teams. It’s not idea but at least then they won’t be unfairly denying any young girls an opportunity to compete fairly and win.
