Two transgender girls are first to challenge Trump's trans sports ban

Alameda, CA (Prism)

The lawsuit, which was originally filed against a state law that banned trans girls from school sports teams, is now also fighting Trump's executive order

Two New Hampshire transgender students have challenged the Trump administration over an executive order banning transgender girls from participating in public school sports teams, marking an expansion of their initial complaint against the state version of the ban.

On Aug. 24, the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire and GLAD Law filed a lawsuit on behalf of Parker Tirrell and Iris Turmelle to push back against HB 1205, a state law that prohibits transgender girls grades five through 12 from participating in sports teams at public schools. The judge ruled that the students could continue participating in their school sports team for the remaining school year while litigation proceeds. The plaintiffs expanded the lawsuit on Feb. 12 to also challenge the federal government over President Donald Trump's recent executive orders blocking federal funding to schools nationwide that allow transgender women and girls to participate in girls' sports teams.

The suit alleges that Donald Trump's order violates Title IX, which bars sex-based discrimination in federally funded education programs, with the 2020 Supreme Court decision in Bostock v. Clayton County extending those protections to transgender student athletes. It also alleges that the ban places an unconstitutional blanket exclusion of transgender students from school sports.

As litigation proceeds, the New Hampshire School Boards Association advised schools last month to eliminate anti-discrimination safeguards for transgender students in order to protect school funding and align with Trump's executive order, New Hampshire Public Radio reported.

"I think the bigger project is important to keep an eye on, which is that we're all fighting against the same federal government policy, which is to try to make life impossible for transgender people. This is just one piece of that bigger puzzle, that bigger fight," said Chris Erchull, a senior staff attorney at GLAD Law who is working on the case.

In 2018, a state law was passed with bipartisan support to add transgender people to protections from discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations. The following year, former Gov. Chris Sununu signed a law that explicitly applied those protections to New Hampshire students in public school, protecting them from discrimination in school sports.

But following a shift in support among Republicans in the state legislature, the state law preventing transgender girls from playing in school sports in grades five through 12 was signed in June, explained Linds Jakows, co-founder of the statewide LGBTQ advocacy group 603 Equality.

The current New Hampshire governor, Kelly Ayotte, did not respond to requests to comment on the ban or the lawsuit.

"They say this is about fairness. They say this is about safety. But when you look carefully ... you see the laws that they passed are categorical bans," Erchull said. "If you know Parker and Iris, you know that they're not a threat to anything [or] anyone, and the only unfairness that's happening here is excluding them from school sports."

Anti-trans rhetoric about transgender people playing on sports teams that align with their gender identity has increased, resulting in an uptick in transphobic legislation across the country.

In 2024, 533 anti-LGBTQIA+ bills were introduced, 50 of which were transgender school sports bans, according to the ACLU. This year, legislators have introduced 83 school sports bans.

According to the Associated Press, Sununu said in a statement last year that the state's sports ban "ensures fairness and safety in women's sports by maintaining integrity and competitive balance in athletic competitions," echoing a disproven basis for transgender sports bans that people assigned male at birth have an unfair advantage over cis women and girls.

But researchers say that transgender sports bans aren't based in science and that there is no good-faith reason to limit or bar transgender girls and women from participating in sports, adding that the bans "target women who have either a different biology or ... simply look different," according to NPR.

Public school sports provide essential opportunities and skills to students, including developing leadership, self-confidence, cooperation, and physical fitness, noted Erchull. To deny transgender girls these opportunities solely because they are transgender is "anathema to what public education is all about," he said.

This was the case for Parker Tirrell, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, who felt that she had become more well-rounded over the 12 years that she's been playing soccer.

"It's a nice way to learn to be social. It's a really good way to learn responsibility and dedication to something. It helps people ... to round themselves out. And that's kind of what it does for me," she said. "I met a lot of people through soccer that I think are great people and that I [still] enjoy talking to, and I think not having that would be really, really difficult for me."

She didn't understand why she was being singled out by the transgender sports bans, she told Prism, adding that her teammates have been very supportive amid the litigation and banning efforts.

"When I first found out [about the ban], it was really hard because it was the beginning of my school year, so I was trying to adjust to getting into high school. But I also had to deal with everything that was going on. So it was a difficult time for me, and it just felt awful. I didn't really understand why I was being singled out. It's not really something I can control," she said. "My teammates, they all support me. Whenever I mention stuff like this, they're like, "That just doesn't seem fair, I really just want to keep playing with you.""

Her mom, Sara Tirrell, told Prism that there is a lot of misunderstanding around Parker and other transgender athletes, noting that if people met Parker or watched her play with an open mind, it "would significantly change the way that they think about trans kids in sports."

According to the New Hampshire Bulletin, the lawsuit is the first to challenge the executive order in federal court, sparking hope among the local LGBTQIA+ community, who say that a legal win could be a pivotal shift toward protecting transgender rights both in the state and nationwide.

"I think the judge in our case sees that we're right on the law. I do think it's going to be a hard case still," Erchull said.

Jakows told Prism that they're hopeful about this case since the federal judge ruled that the plaintiffs could continue playing sports at their school amid litigation.

"That's a win for those girls who need a place to belong with their friends, and having an affirming space is now more important than ever when we have political attacks that are harming the mental health of LGBTQ young people," Jackows said. "The legal process is slow. Of course, it should be all transgender athletes, not just those two girls, but I am hopeful that they'll prevail in this case."