Transgender girls sue New Hampshire officials over sports ban

Two transgender teenage girls and their families sued New Hampshire education officials on Friday over a new law that will bar some trans students in the state from competing on school sports teams that match their gender identities.

The legislation, House Bill 1205, goes into effect Monday and will require students in grades 5-12 to compete on school sports teams that match the gender marked on their birth certificates. 

Parker Tirrell, 15, and Iris Turmelle, 14, along with their families argue in their lawsuit that the new law violates Title IX federal civil rights rules, which prevent sex discrimination in federally funded education programs and activities. 

A spokesperson for the New Hampshire Department of Education said in an email that the department does not comment on pending litigation and referred NBC News to the state attorney general’s office. Mike Garrity, a spokesperson for the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office, said in an email that the office is “reviewing the complaint and will respond as appropriate.”

Tirrell, who is a rising sophomore at Plymouth Regional High School, said her school has already barred her from participating on the girls’ soccer team. 

“Not being allowed to play on my team with the other girls would disconnect me from so many of my friends and make school so much harder,” Tirell said in a statement. “I just want to be myself and to learn, play, and support my teammates like I did last year.”

Turmelle, a rising freshman at Pembroke Academy in Pembroke, has not been explicitly barred from participating in any school sports yet, but intends to try out for her school’s girls’ tennis and track and field teams.

“I’m a transgender girl, I’ve known that my whole life and everyone knows I’m a girl,” Turmelle said in a statement. “I don’t understand why I shouldn’t get to have the same opportunities as other girls at school,”

Since Idaho enacted a law limiting trans students’ participation in school sports in 2020, a total of 25 states have passed laws banning some or all trans students from competing on sports teams consistent with their gender identities, according to LGBTQ think tank Movement Advancement Project. 

Proponents of these laws say that some trans athletes can have unfair competitive advantages, while critics say they’re discriminatory and prevent trans students from obtaining the benefits of school sports. 

“Sports are a pillar of education in New Hampshire public schools because of the countless benefits of physical activity in a team environment, including physical and mental health, leadership skills, and social development,” Chris Erchull, a staff attorney at the Massachusetts-based nonprofit GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, or GLAD, said. “New Hampshire cannot justify singling out transgender girls to deny them essential educational benefits available to other students.”

The Tirrell and Turmelle families are being represented by GLAD, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire and law firm Goodwin Procter.

In April, the Biden administration expanded Title IX rules to include protections for LGBTQ students. However, the rules notably did not mention the issue of trans athletes. Furthermore, over 20 GOP-led states have sued the administration over the new rules. And in June, federal judges temporarily blocked the rules from taking place in 10 states challenging them. 

New Hampshire’s transgender sports law was one of two bills Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican, signed into law last month affecting the state’s trans community. The other measure will prevent trans minors from receiving transition-related surgery and bar physicians from referring patients for out-of-state procedures starting next year.  

Sununu said in a statement at the time that the bills “reflect commonsense, bipartisan solutions that reflect the values of parents across our state.” 

Sununu vetoed a bill last month that would have limited which restrooms trans people could access.

A representative for Sununu did not immediately return a request for comment regarding Friday’s lawsuit.

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