Latest news with #ParkerTirrell
The Independent
7 hours ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Trump seeks removal from a New Hampshire lawsuit challenging his order on transgender athletes
President Donald Trump 's administration wants to be dropped from a lawsuit in which two New Hampshire teens are challenging their state's ban on transgender athletes in girls' sports and the president's executive order on the same topic. Parker Tirrell, 16, and Iris Turmelle, 14, became first to challenge Trump's 'Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports' order when they added him to their ongoing lawsuit over New Hampshire's ban in February. A federal judge has ruled that they can try out and play on girls sports teams while the case proceeds. In a motion filed Friday, attorneys for the government say the teens are trying to 'drag the federal government into a lawsuit well under way not because of an imminent injury, but because of a generalized grievance with polices set by the President of the United States.' Deputy Associate Attorney General Richard Lawson argued that the government has done nothing yet to enforce the executive orders in New Hampshire and may never do so. 'Plaintiffs lack constitutional standing and their stated speculative risk of future injury is not close to imminent and may never become ripe,' wrote Lawson, who asked the judge to dismiss claims against Trump, the justice and education departments, and their leaders, Trump's executive order gives federal agencies wide latitude to ensure entities that receive federal funding abide by Title IX — which prohibits sexual discrimination in schools -- in alignment with the Trump administration's view a person's sex as the gender assigned at birth. Lawyers for the teens say the 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. In its response, the government argues that the order does not discriminate based on sex because males and females are not similarly situated when it comes to sports. Transgender people represent a very small part of the nation's youth population – about 1.4% of teens ages 13 to 17, or around 300,000 people. But about half of the states have adopted similar measures to New Hampshire's sports ban, with supporters arguing that allowing transgender girls to play is unfair and dangerous. In interviews earlier this year, neither New Hampshire teen said they feel they hold any advantage over other players. Tirrell says she's less muscular than other girls on her soccer team, and Turmelle said she doesn't see herself as a major athlete. 'To the argument that it's not fair, I'd just like to point out that I did not get on the softball team,' Turmelle recalled of her tryout last year. 'If that wasn't fair, then I don't know what you want from me.'
Associated Press
8 hours ago
- Politics
- Associated Press
Trump seeks removal from a New Hampshire lawsuit challenging his order on transgender athletes
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — President Donald Trump's administration wants to be dropped from a lawsuit in which two New Hampshire teens are challenging their state's ban on transgender athletes in girls' sports and the president's executive order on the same topic. Parker Tirrell, 16, and Iris Turmelle, 14, became first to challenge Trump's 'Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports' order when they added him to their ongoing lawsuit over New Hampshire's ban in February. A federal judge has ruled that they can try out and play on girls sports teams while the case proceeds. In a motion filed Friday, attorneys for the government say the teens are trying to 'drag the federal government into a lawsuit well under way not because of an imminent injury, but because of a generalized grievance with polices set by the President of the United States.' Deputy Associate Attorney General Richard Lawson argued that the government has done nothing yet to enforce the executive orders in New Hampshire and may never do so. 'Plaintiffs lack constitutional standing and their stated speculative risk of future injury is not close to imminent and may never become ripe,' wrote Lawson, who asked the judge to dismiss claims against Trump, the justice and education departments, and their leaders, Trump's executive order gives federal agencies wide latitude to ensure entities that receive federal funding abide by Title IX — which prohibits sexual discrimination in schools -- in alignment with the Trump administration's view a person's sex as the gender assigned at birth. Lawyers for the teens say the 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. In its response, the government argues that the order does not discriminate based on sex because males and females are not similarly situated when it comes to sports. Transgender people represent a very small part of the nation's youth population – about 1.4% of teens ages 13 to 17, or around 300,000 people. But about half of the states have adopted similar measures to New Hampshire's sports ban, with supporters arguing that allowing transgender girls to play is unfair and dangerous. In interviews earlier this year, neither New Hampshire teen said they feel they hold any advantage over other players. Tirrell says she's less muscular than other girls on her soccer team, and Turmelle said she doesn't see herself as a major athlete. 'To the argument that it's not fair, I'd just like to point out that I did not get on the softball team,' Turmelle recalled of her tryout last year. 'If that wasn't fair, then I don't know what you want from me.'
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Federal judge rules against parents seeking to protest transgender athletes with wristband
A federal judge in New Hampshire is siding with a local school district in preventing parents from wearing armbands on school property in support of biological girls-only sports. In September, the parents wore pink-colored "XX" wristbands during a high school soccer game where transgender athlete Parker Tirrell, now 16, was playing on an opposing team. The wristbands referenced the sex chromosomes associated with biological females. The protest led to Bow and Dunbarton School Districts Superintendent Marcy Kelley issuing a notice of trespass against parents Anthony and Nicole Foote, along with Kyle Fellers and Eldon Rash, according to the New Hampshire Journal. Trump Admin Executive Order Banning Transgender Participation In Women's Sports Just The Start, Expert Says The parents then sued the school district, claiming their First Amendment rights were violated. While the no-trespass orders have since expired, they asked the judge to allow them to carry signs and wear the wristbands featuring the symbol for female chromosomes at school events while the case proceeds. On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Steven McAuliffe, a President George H. W. Bush appointee, ruled that the district acted reasonably in its decision to prevent parents from protesting. Read On The Fox News App McAuliffe said the parents' "narrow, plausibly inoffensive" intentions were not as important as the wider context, and that adults attending a high school athletic event do not enjoy a First Amendment-protected right to convey messages that demean, harass or harm students. "While plaintiffs may very well have never intended to communicate a demeaning or harassing message directed at Parker Tirrell or any other transgender students, the symbols and posters they displayed were fully capable of conveying such a message," he wrote. "And, that broader messaging is what the school authorities reasonably understood and appropriately tried to prevent." "The broader and more demeaning/harassing message the School District understood plaintiffs' 'XX' symbols to convey was, in context, entirely reasonable," wrote McAuliffe. United Nations Hold Panel On Fighting Violence Against Women And Girls In Sports Fellers and Foote testified that they had not intended to harass or otherwise target a transgender player on the opposing team, but the school district said differently. The group of parents had also not protested at any previous game. In the days leading up to the game, another parent told school officials that she had overheard others talk about showing up to the game wearing dresses and heckling the transgender player. "When we suspect there's some sort of threat . . . we don't wait for it to happen," Kelley said previously. In February, the parents asked the court to rule that they be allowed to wear pink wristbands at the spring games to protest transgender athletes competing in girls' sports. Their request for a preliminary injection was denied, and the court has yet to rule on the request to wear the pink wristbands at all school sporting events, per the Concord Monitor. Del Kolde, a senior attorney for the Institute for Free Speech and one of the attorneys representing the parents, said he strongly disagrees with the court's opinion issued denying their request for a preliminary injunction. "This was adult speech in a limited public forum, which enjoys greater First Amendment protection than student speech in the classroom," Kolde said in a statement to the outlet. "Bow School District officials were obviously discriminating based on viewpoint because they perceived the XX wristbands to be 'trans-exclusionary'." After the ruling was issued, the plaintiffs filed a notice saying they do not intend to enter more evidence before the judge makes a final decision. The decision comes just weeks after President Donald Trump signed an executive order intended to ban transgender athletes from participating in girls' and women's sports. Fox News' Ryan Morik, Paulina Dedaj, Landon Mion, Jackson Thompson and The Associated Press contributed to this article source: Federal judge rules against parents seeking to protest transgender athletes with wristband
Fox News
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Federal judge rules against parents seeking to protest transgender athletes with wristband
A federal judge in New Hampshire is siding with a local school district in preventing parents from wearing armbands on school property in support of biological girls-only sports. In September, the parents wore pink-colored "XX" wristbands during a high school soccer game where transgender athlete Parker Tirrell, now 16, was playing on an opposing team. The wristbands referenced the sex chromosomes associated with biological females. The protest led to Bow and Dunbarton School Districts Superintendent Marcy Kelley issuing a notice of trespass against parents Anthony and Nicole Foote, along with Kyle Fellers and Eldon Rash, according to the New Hampshire Journal. The parents then sued the school district, claiming their First Amendment rights were violated. While the no-trespass orders have since expired, they asked the judge to allow them to carry signs and wear the wristbands featuring the symbol for female chromosomes at school events while the case proceeds. On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Steven McAuliffe, a President George H. W. Bush appointee, ruled that the district acted reasonably in its decision to prevent parents from protesting. McAuliffe said the parents' "narrow, plausibly inoffensive" intentions were not as important as the wider context, and that adults attending a high school athletic event do not enjoy a First Amendment-protected right to convey messages that demean, harass or harm students. "While plaintiffs may very well have never intended to communicate a demeaning or harassing message directed at Parker Tirrell or any other transgender students, the symbols and posters they displayed were fully capable of conveying such a message," he wrote. "And, that broader messaging is what the school authorities reasonably understood and appropriately tried to prevent." "The broader and more demeaning/harassing message the School District understood plaintiffs' 'XX' symbols to convey was, in context, entirely reasonable," wrote McAuliffe. Fellers and Foote testified that they had not intended to harass or otherwise target a transgender player on the opposing team, but the school district said differently. The group of parents had also not protested at any previous game. In the days leading up to the game, another parent told school officials that she had overheard others talk about showing up to the game wearing dresses and heckling the transgender player. "When we suspect there's some sort of threat . . . we don't wait for it to happen," Kelley said previously. In February, the parents asked the court to rule that they be allowed to wear pink wristbands at the spring games to protest transgender athletes competing in girls' sports. Their request for a preliminary injection was denied, and the court has yet to rule on the request to wear the pink wristbands at all school sporting events, per the Concord Monitor. Del Kolde, a senior attorney for the Institute for Free Speech and one of the attorneys representing the parents, said he strongly disagrees with the court's opinion issued denying their request for a preliminary injunction. "This was adult speech in a limited public forum, which enjoys greater First Amendment protection than student speech in the classroom," Kolde said in a statement to the outlet. "Bow School District officials were obviously discriminating based on viewpoint because they perceived the XX wristbands to be 'trans-exclusionary'." After the ruling was issued, the plaintiffs filed a notice saying they do not intend to enter more evidence before the judge makes a final decision. The decision comes just weeks after President Donald Trump signed an executive order intended to ban transgender athletes from participating in girls' and women's sports.
Yahoo
14-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Judge rules against dads who wore pink wristbands to protest trans high school athletes
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Two fathers who oppose allowing transgender athletes to play high school sports won't be allowed to wear pink wristbands marked 'XX' to games while their lawsuit against the school district continues, a federal judge ruled Monday. Kyle Fellers and Anthony Foote were banned from school grounds in Bow after wearing the wristbands to a soccer game in September that included a transgender girl on the opposing team. They later sued the school district, and while the no-trespass orders have since expired, they asked the judge to allow them to carry signs and wear the wristbands featuring the symbol for female chromosomes at school events while the case proceeds. Both men testified at a hearing in November that they didn't intend to harass or otherwise target transgender athlete Parker Tirrell, and their attorneys argued they did nothing more than silently express their support for reserving girls' sports for those assigned female at birth. But in denying their motion Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Steven McAuliffe said the parents' 'narrow, plausibly inoffensive' intentions weren't as important as the wider context, and that adults attending a high school athletic event do not enjoy a First Amendment protected right to convey messages that demean, harass or harm students. "While plaintiffs may very well have never intended to communicate a demeaning or harassing message directed at Parker Tirrell or any other transgender students, the symbols and posters they displayed were fully capable of conveying such a message," he wrote. 'And, that broader messaging is what the school authorities reasonably understood and appropriately tried to prevent.' School officials described receiving strongly-worded emails from Foote in which he called himself a 'real leader' who was prepared to take action and seeing his social media posts urging others to attend the game. In the days leading up to the game, another parent told school officials she overheard others talk about showing up to the game wearing dresses and heckling Tirrell. 'This was organized and targeted,' Superintendent Marcy Kelley said. Brian Cullen, an attorney for the school district, said Monday he was pleased with what he called a well-reasoned ruling that affirms that school districts can and should protect students from harassment from adults on school grounds. And he noted that the ruling doesn't prevent the plaintiffs from expressing their views in other ways. 'It simply prevents them from bringing their protest to the sidelines of a game being played by kids. That should not be a controversial limitation,' he said. Del Kolde, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said he strongly disagrees with the ruling. 'This was adult speech in a limited public forum, which enjoys greater First Amendment protection than student speech in the classroom,' said Kolde, senior attorney for the Institute for Free Speech. 'Bow School District officials were obviously discriminating based on viewpoint because they perceived the XX wristbands to be 'trans-exclusionary.'' After the ruling was issued, the plaintiffs filed a notice saying they do not intend to enter more evidence before the judge makes a final decision. Meanwhile, Tirrell and another student athlete are challenging the state law that bans transgender athletes in grades 5 to 12 from teams that align with their gender identity, as well as President Donald Trump's Feb. 5 executive order, 'Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports.' A federal judge ruled in their case that they can play sports during the ongoing lawsuit that seeks to overturn the law.
