Judge to decide Monday whether transgender N.H. teen can play on her school’s soccer team – The Boston Globe

Christopher G. Bond, general counsel for the New Hampshire Department of Justice, said Sunday that the attorney general’s office is tasked with defending duly enacted state laws in court, so the office won’t agree to a temporary restraining order that would result in the suspension of provisions of the law at issue in this case.

The parties had until Monday morning to file a joint stipulation to formalize their potential agreement. But the court on Sunday scheduled a hearing for Monday at 2 p.m. to address a pending emergency motion, which signaled that no deal had been reached.

The plaintiffs’ emergency motion asks the judge to temporarily block New Hampshire education officials from enforcing the law and to allow Tirrell to keep attending practice and games with her team.

Chief Judge Landya B. McCafferty is presiding over this case in the US District Court for the District of New Hampshire. She was nominated by former president Barack Obama and is the first woman to serve as a federal district court judge in New Hampshire.

The enforcement action that triggered this lawsuit came Thursday, when the superintendent of Tirrell’s school district notified Tirrell’s parents that the teen would no longer be welcome at soccer practice beginning Monday, since the new law barring her from the team would take effect over the weekend.

With backing from three law firms that advocate for the rights of LGBTQ+ people, Tirrell and Turmelle, along with their respective parents, filed a lawsuit Friday to challenge enforcement of the new law.

Their attorneys argue in court filings that Tirrell, a rising sophomore at Plymouth Regional High School, and Turmelle, a rising ninth-grader at Pembroke Academy, will be denied “a critical aspect of their education” unless the court provides immediate relief.

“They are young adolescents at a critical stage of their personal development,” the attorneys wrote. “They will never get their early high school years back and, as such, a preliminary injunction is necessary to avoid the denial of a critical and unique educational program that cannot be repeated or replaced, let alone adequately compensated by money damages.”

“In their short high school careers, a single day that they miss out on essential educational opportunities will cause them great harm,” they added.

Proponents of the legislation — which Governor Chris Sununu, a Republican, signed last month — said it would protect safety and fairness for girls’ sports.

“It may not be universal, but biological males have a strength and speed advantage over biological females,” said New Hampshire Senate President Jeb Bradley, a Wolfeboro Republican, during legislative debate in May.

The lawsuit contends, however, that being transgender “is not an accurate proxy for athletic performance or ability.” Tirrell and Turmell are taking puberty-blocking medication and hormone therapy, so they won’t experience the muscular development and other physical changes that is typical for testosterone-driven male puberty, their lawsuit says.

Their attorneys argue they don’t have any physiological or biological advantage in girls’ sports and are being excluded based on their status as members of “a politically unpopular class.”

Under the new restrictions, public schools that serve students in fifth through 12th grades, and private schools whose students compete against public schools, must designate each of their interscholastic sports and club athletics teams as being for either males, females, or both.

A student’s sex is determined based on their unamended birth certificate. If a birth certificate “does not appear to be” original or does not specify sex at birth, then the student “must provide other evidence indicating the student’s sex at the time of birth” and cover any costs associated with doing so.

Private parties can sue schools for failing to enforce the new law’s restrictions.

The issue of how to treat transgender athletes has been a contentious topic in recent years. In late July, the Associated Press reported, a Florida school employee who allowed her transgender daughter to play on the high school’s girls volleyball team was suspended for 10 days. The employee is part of a federal lawsuit to block Florida’s law. A legal challenge to Connecticut’s policy about trans students competing in school sports has been making its way through the court system for several years.

Steven Porter can be reached at steven.porter@globe.com. Follow him @reporterporter.