Trans girl can play football for school team after New Hampshire judge’s ruling
Rebekah Bruesehoff, a transgender student athlete, speaks at a press conference on LGBTQI+ rights, at the U.S. Capitol on 8 March, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
A trans girl from New Hampshire has been given the go-ahead to play football for her high school team, after a federal judge granted a temporary emergency order.
US district court chief judge Landya McCafferty granted the order requested by the families of Parker Tirrell, 15, and 14-year-old Iris Turmelle, on Monday (19 August).
While Turmelle won’t start playing until the end of the year, the ruling means Parker can join team practice immediately.
The families filed a lawsuit last week, in a bid to overturn the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which was signed into law last month by Republican governor Chris Sununu. The legislation bans trans woman and girls from school sports teams from kindergarten to the 12th grade and at public universities.
The families argued that it violates their children’s rights under the Equal Protection clause of the US Constitution and under Title IX, which protects students from sex discrimination at school.
The new law “violates protections and federal laws because the teens are being denied equal educational opportunities and are being discriminated against because they are transgender”, they claimed.
McCafferty found that Parker had “demonstrated that she is likely to succeed on the merits of her case”. The judge questioned how the law would protect biological girls from “unfair competition” given that Parker has been taking puberty blockers to prevent changes to her body.
She also ruled that without the medication, Parker would endure irreversible harm, the Daily Mail reported.
Chris Erchull, from GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, said: “We are very happy with the judge’s order. It is what we expected because we know that this law is unfair and violates the rights of transgender girls of New Hampshire.”
The court will decide if the law as a whole should be blocked in legal proceedings next week.
In Florida, trans student-athletes are barred from playing in school sports teams that align with their gender identity, under a bill signed into law by Republican governor Ron DeSantis.
High school students to stage a walk-out in opposition to the law last November.
In April, an appeals court ruled that a West Virginia trans sports ban discriminated against a teenager.
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