Two students challenging New Hampshire’s ban on transgender athletes on girls’ sports teams will also fight President Trump’s executive order, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” after a judge approved their request Wednesday.
It’s believed to be the first time the constitutionality of the executive order signed by Trump last week is being challenged in court, according to Boston-based GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, also known as GLAD Law, one of the groups representing the teens.
“The systematic targeting of transgender people across American institutions is chilling, but targeting young people in schools, denying them support and essential opportunities during their most vulnerable years, is especially cruel,” said Chris Erchull, a GLAD attorney.
This past fall, a federal judge in New Hampshire ruled that the two students can try out for and play on girls’ school sports teams while the teens challenge the state ban.
The families of Parker Tirrell, 15, and Iris Turmelle, 14, sued in August, seeking to overturn the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act that former Republican Gov. Chris Sununu signed into law in July.
Tirrell is a 10th grade student who plays on her high school soccer team, and Turmelle is a ninth grade student who plans to try out for tennis in the spring.
“I love playing soccer and we had a great season last fall,” Tirrell said in a statement. “I just want to go to school like other kids and keep playing the game I love.”
Trump’s order last week gives federal agencies wide latitude to ensure entities that receive federal funding abide by Title IX in alignment with the Trump administration’s view, which interprets “sex” as the sex someone was assigned at birth.
GLAD and ACLU of New Hampshire asked the judge for permission to add Trump, the U.S. Department of Justice, Attorney General Pam Bondi, the U.S. Department of Education and acting Secretary Denise Carter as defendants.
An email seeking comment was sent to the White House Press Office.
In a brief order, U.S. District Judge Landya McCafferty said she “finds good cause” for the lawyers to amend the lawsuit.
The lawyers say Trump’s executive order, along with parts of a Jan. 20 executive order that forbids federal money from being used to “promote gender ideology,” subjects the teens and all transgender girls to discrimination in violation of federal equal protection guarantees and their rights under Title IX.
The lawyers also say the executive orders unlawfully subject the teens’ schools to the threat of losing federal funding for allowing them to play sports.
Also on Wednesday, the Office for Civil Rights announced investigations into high school athletic associations in Minnesota and California for allegedly planning to violate Title IX.
After Trump signed the executive order banning transgender athletes last week, the Minnesota State High School League and the California Interscholastic Federation said they would abide by state laws, which allow transgender players to participate on women’s and girls’ teams.
Information from The Associated Press contributed to this report.
