New Hampshire High School Trans Athletes Take Their Fight to Trump

Two transgender students from a public high school in New Hampshire are challenging President Trump’s executive order, which aims to prevent transgender girls and women from participating in women’s sports. This challenge was filed in federal court on Wednesday, as part of a broader lawsuit these students had initially launched last summer regarding their eligibility to play on girls’ sports teams.

The students are now asking the court to add President Trump and his administration to the list of defendants in their ongoing legal battle. In August, New Hampshire passed a law banning transgender girls in grades 5 through 12 from joining girls’ sports teams. The two students, who had already filed a lawsuit against their schools and state education officials, want the court to affirm their right to compete on teams that reflect their gender identity.https://svtoday.org/

The new court filing marks the first legal challenge to the constitutionality of Trump’s recent executive order, titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.” This order, signed just last week, effectively bans transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports, directing the Department of Education to investigate schools that do not comply and revoke their federal funding. It’s part of a broader pattern of actions by Trump’s administration to reduce the government’s recognition of transgender rights.

The two teenagers have criticized the order, describing it as part of a larger effort to strip transgender individuals of their legal rights and remove them from society.

In September, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction allowing the two students, Parker Tirrell (16) and Iris Turmelle (15), to continue playing on girls’ teams while their lawsuit proceeds. However, Trump’s order now threatens that decision, according to the new filing.

Parker, a sophomore at Plymouth Regional High School, shared her experience of playing soccer, saying she faced little opposition from opponents, despite knowing she was transgender. “Nothing bad happened,” she said. “The people I was playing against weren’t overly concerned.” But when she returned home from school and learned of the executive order, she felt disheartened by the effort to block her participation in sports. “It seems like the amount of effort he’s putting in to stop me from playing sports is unnecessarily high, for no good reason.”

Iris, a freshman at Pembroke Academy, said that while she didn’t enjoy all aspects of sports, she wanted to have the same opportunities as her peers. “Other girls have that,” she said. “Why shouldn’t I?” She hopes to try out for her school’s tennis and track teams.

Additionally, the students are challenging another executive order that mandates federal agencies stop funding programs that promote “gender ideology.” This term is defined by the order as the belief that a person’s gender identity, rather than the sex on their birth certificate, should dictate their eligibility for certain sports or bathroom access, and even the pronouns used to refer to them.

The lawsuit argues that both of Trump’s executive orders violate constitutional protections against sex discrimination and contradict Title IX, the 1972 law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in federally funded educational programs.

Chris Erchull, a senior attorney with GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, representing the students, stated, “It’s unconstitutional and it’s wrong. We’re standing up against it.”

The lawsuit also contends that the president overstepped his authority by instructing federal agencies to withhold congressionally approved funding.

In states with Democratic legislatures, transgender student-athletes are generally allowed to compete on teams matching their gender identity, which contrasts with Trump’s directives. Erchull suggested that the high visibility of this case might result in these schools facing increased scrutiny. The U.S. Department of Education recently began investigating several schools and athletic associations for allowing transgender athletes to participate in women’s sports.

In one incident, Parker’s soccer team faced opposition from some players who refused to compete because she is transgender. Despite this, the game proceeded with other players. At another match, some parents wore wristbands labeled “XX” to signify typical female chromosomes, sparking media attention and a lawsuit regarding free speech rights after the school district banned such protests.

Trump’s executive order asserts that allowing transgender girls to compete in female sports is unfair, claiming it leads to the “endangerment, humiliation, and silencing” of women. According to a recent Ipsos poll conducted by The New York Times, nearly 80% of Americans oppose transgender women participating in women’s sports.

Following the signing of Trump’s order, the NCAA announced a sweeping ban on transgender athletes competing in women’s sports, citing Trump’s executive order as the national standard. NCAA President Charlie Baker confirmed that the rule change would apply across member institutions.

The issue gained national attention when Lia Thomas, a transgender swimmer at the University of Pennsylvania, became the first openly transgender woman to win an NCAA Division I championship in 2022. The Trump administration has since called for her and other transgender athletes to be stripped of their titles.

In response to New Hampshire’s law, U.S. District Court Judge Landya McCafferty ruled that the state had not proven that fairness and safety concerns were valid in Parker and Iris’s case. Both girls began taking puberty-suppressing medication before their athletic performance could diverge from that of other girls, the judge noted.

The impact of Trump’s order is already being felt at the state level. The Kearsarge Regional School District in New Hampshire, which had previously allowed transgender girls to play on girls’ sports teams, decided to comply with the new federal interpretation of Title IX, restricting transgender girls from joining girls’ teams to avoid losing federal funding.

District Superintendent John Fortney explained that the federal government’s redefinition of “sex” under Title IX required the district to change its policies, saying, “It’s like speeding — you follow the rules, even if you don’t agree with them.”

Despite these changes, Fortney expressed hope that transgender students could still participate in coed teams like track and field, which might allow them to continue to benefit from the valuable lessons sports provide.