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Boston Globe
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Judge rules against N.H. parents who wore pink ‘XX' wristbands in protest of transgender student athlete
Get N.H. Morning Report A weekday newsletter delivering the N.H. news you need to know right to your inbox. Enter Email Sign Up Tirrell, a sophomore at Plymouth Regional High School, is one of two students in New Hampshire Advertisement Based on the facts Advertisement Del Kolde, a senior attorney with the 'This was adult speech in a limited public forum, which enjoys greater First Amendment protection than student speech in the classroom,' Kolde said. 'Bow School District officials were obviously discriminating based on viewpoint because they perceived the XX wristbands to be 'trans-exclusionary.'' The case can still proceed toward trial, and Kolde said the plaintiffs are evaluating their next steps. Steven Porter can be reached at
Fox News
29-03-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Transgender athletes open up about suing Trump administration over bans from girls sports
Two teenage transgender athletes who are suing President Donald Trump's administration told The Associated Press about their motivation for the lawsuit. The two New Hampshire teens, 16-year-old Parker Tirrell and 15-year-old Iris Turmelle, are biological males who have played on girls sports teams for their respective high schools. They and their families originally filed a lawsuit last year to challenge a New Hampshire law prohibiting transgender athletes from participating in girls sports. In February, after Trump signed an executive order banning trans athletes from girls sports nationwide, a federal judge granted a request to add the Trump administration to the list of defendants. Tirrell played girls soccer at Plymouth Regional High School in the fall. "I just feel like I'm being singled out right now by lawmakers and Trump and just the whole legislative system for something that I can't control," Tirrell said. "It just doesn't feel great. It's not great. It feels like they just don't want me to exist. But I'm not going to stop existing just because they don't want me to." Turmelle, who attends Pembroke Academy, is interested in joining that school's girls tennis and track teams, according to court filings. "We don't go to sleep in the day and go out at night and drink people's blood. We don't hate sunlight. We're human, just like you," Turmelle said. Turmelle spoke about not making the school's softball team. "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 said. "If that wasn't fair, then I don't know what you want from me." New Hampshire federal Judge Landya McCafferty, who was appointed to her seat by former President Barack Obama in 2013, granted a preliminary injunction Sept. 10, allowing Tirrell to play for Plymouth Regional and bypass the state law to keep trans athletes out of girls sports. New Hampshire was already one of 25 states with a law in place to enforce similar bans on trans inclusion before Trump's executive order went into effect. Tirrell and Turmelle's lawyers argue Trump's executive 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 people to discrimination in violation of federal equal protection guarantees and their rights under Title IX. "The systematic targeting of transgender people across American institutions is chilling, but targeting young people in schools, denying them support and essential opportunities during their most vulnerable years, is especially cruel," Chris Erchull, a GLAD attorney, said. The situation involving the two trans athletes has also prompted a second lawsuit after parents wore wristbands that said "XX" in reference to the biological female chromosomes and were allegedly banned from school grounds for wearing them. Plaintiffs Kyle Fellers and Anthony Foote sued the Bow School District after being banned from school grounds for wearing the wristbands at their daughters' soccer game in September. In the lawsuit filed by Fellers and Foote, they allege they were told by school officials to remove the armbands, or they would have to leave the game. Both of the fathers say the intention of the armband was not to protest Tirrell, but to support their own daughters in a game that featured a biological male. Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
Yahoo
25-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Attorneys for female athletes defend Trump order on women's sports in NH case
Feb. 24—Attorneys representing Female Athletes United filed a motion Friday in federal court to intervene in the suit brought by two New Hampshire transgender high school athletes. The organization is looking to defend the state's new transgender sports law and two executive orders by President Donald Trump, which it says protect women's sports. Female Athletes United, which has members in New Hampshire and across the country who say they have lost in athletic competitions to male athletes, is being represented by lawyers from the Alliance Defending Freedom. HB 1205, a state law also known as the "Fairness in Women's Sports Act," was enacted last summer, but a federal judge blocked enforcement after attorneys for the families of Parker Tirrell and Iris Turmelle, the two transgender teens, challenged the law. Tirrell, a sophomore at Plymouth Regional High School, was allowed to play girls soccer for Plymouth last fall. Turmelle, a freshman at Pembroke Academy, wanted to try out for girls tennis this spring. The New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association told member schools to follow Trump's Feb. 5 executive order called "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports," saying in a news release that noncompliance could lead to "possible consequences to federal funding." Attorneys for the families have now expanded the lawsuit and challenged that Trump order and one that he signed on Jan. 20 titled "Defending Women from Gender Ideology and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government" and "Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports. "The Trump Administration's executive orders amount to a coordinated campaign to prevent transgender people from functioning in society," said Chris Erchull, senior staff attorney at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law), which is representing the families along with the ACLU of New Hampshire. "The systematic targeting of transgender people across American institutions is chilling, but targeting young people in schools, denying them support and essential opportunities during their most vulnerable years, is especially cruel. "School sports are an important part of education — something no child should be denied simply because of who they are." In their brief, filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Concord, Female Athletes United's lawyers say the organization has members across the country who want to "compete on a safe and level playing field and cannot do so if they are forced to compete against males." "That includes members who have been forced to compete against male athletes who identify as female," the brief says. "And it includes members who have had to do so in New Hampshire. Plus, the facial relief that plaintiffs seek extends beyond just sports teams. It would affect the executive orders' protections for female locker rooms, restrooms, and other private spaces, and (Female Athletes United) and its members also have a concrete interest in keeping males out of those private spaces." "Women and girls deserve privacy, safety, and equal opportunities. That can't happen when males are competing in women's sports, taking spots on women's athletic teams, and winning women's championships," Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel and vice president of litigation Jonathan Scruggs said in a statement. "President Trump's executive orders and New Hampshire's law merely recognize common sense and track Title IX, the federal law that ensures equal opportunities for women in athletics. While the rest of the world is returning to biological reality, activists continue to push gender ideology in schools and sports across the country. "But female athletes have already suffered enough humiliation of losing to males in women's sports and being told to stay silent — we are urging the court to consider their voices when deciding this vital case." pfeely@
New York Times
12-02-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
New Hampshire High School Trans Athletes Take Their Fight to Trump
Two transgender public high school students in New Hampshire are challenging President Trump's executive order that seeks to bar trans girls and women from competing on women's sports teams, according to documents filed in federal court on Wednesday. The teenagers asked the court in Wednesday to add Mr. Trump and members of his administration as defendants in a lawsuit the students filed last summer regarding their eligibility to play girls' sports at school. The state had enacted a law in August barring transgender girls in grades 5 through 12 from participating in girls' sports, and the two students initially sued their schools and state education officials, asking the court to rule that they could compete on teams that aligned with their gender identity. Their court filing on Wednesday appears to be the first time that the constitutionality of Mr. Trump's executive order, titled 'Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports,' has been challenged in court. The order, signed last week, effectively bars the participation of trans athletes on girls' and women's teams, directing the Department of Education to investigate schools that do not comply and to withdraw the schools' federal funding. It is one of several orders in which Mr. Trump has sought to roll back government recognition of transgender Americans. In the lawsuit, the two teenagers call Mr. Trump's actions 'a broad intention to deny transgender people legal protections and to purge transgender people from society.' A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction in September allowing the two athletes, Parker Tirrell, 16, and Iris Turmelle, 15, to play on girls' sports teams while their lawsuit was pending. Mr. Trump's directive puts that ability at new risk, the filing states. 'I played soccer — nothing bad happened.,' Parker, a sophomore at Plymouth Regional High School, said in an interview this week. 'Not everyone was happy about it, but it seemed like the people I was playing against weren't overly concerned.' But when she got home from school last Wednesday, she said, 'my mom told me that Trump had signed an executive order banning trans girls from playing sports.' She added, 'The amount of effort he's going through to stop me from playing sports seems extraordinarily high, for not a very good reason.' Iris, a freshman at Pembroke Academy, a public high school in Pembroke, N.H., once said of a middle-school program called Girls on the Run that she loved everything about it 'except the running,' said her mother, Amy Manzelli. Even so, the teenager said in an interview this week that she wanted to preserve her chance to play any sport she chooses: 'Other girls have that,' she said. 'Why shouldn't I?' She said she hoped to try out for her school's tennis and track teams. The teenagers are also challenging another executive order that directs federal agencies to end funding for programs that foster 'gender ideology,' which the order defined as the idea that a person's gender identity, rather than the sex on their original birth certificate, should determine whether they participate in men's or women's sports, or use male or female bathrooms, or are called by their chosen pronouns. Mr. Trump's two directives, the court filing argues, violate constitutional protections against sex discrimination and conflict with Title IX, the 1972 civil rights statute that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in educational programs that receive federal funding. 'Our plaintiffs and many other transgender girls and women across the country are being deprived of opportunities in education and beyond, simply because they're transgender,' said Chris Erchull, a senior staff attorney with GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, which represents the girls and their families. 'It's unconstitutional and it's wrong, and we're standing up against it.' Like several other challenges to Mr. Trump's executive orders, the lawsuit also argues that the president exceeded his authority by directing the federal agencies to withhold funds appropriated by Congress. In states where Democrats control the legislatures, transgender student athletes in elementary and secondary schools typically are able to compete on teams that align with their gender identity, leaving federal agencies with numerous enforcement targets for Mr. Trump's orders. Mr. Erchull said the publicity surrounding his clients' case might put their schools high on the list. Last week, the Education Department said it had begun investigating two colleges and a state athletic association that had drawn public attention for allowing transgender athletes to compete on women's teams. Some players on one of the opposing teams that Parker's soccer team faced in the fall refused to play because she is trans, according to Parker's parents. The game was played with other players participating. At another game, some parents protested by wearing pink wristbands marked 'XX,' to represent the typical chromosomal pattern for females. That incident attracted media coverage and sparked a lawsuit on free-speech grounds after the Bow School District responded by prohibiting such protests. Mr. Trump's order states that allowing transgender girls and women to compete in categories designated for female athletes is unfair and 'results in the endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls.' Nearly 80 percent of Americans do not believe transgender female athletes should be allowed to compete in women's sports, according to a recent New York Times and Ipsos poll. The day after Mr. Trump issued his order concerning trans athletes, the National Collegiate Athletic Association fell into line, announcing a sweeping ban on transgender athletes competing at its member institutions. 'President Trump's order provides a clear, national standard,' Charlie Baker, the president of the N.C.A.A., said in a statement. Mr. Baker told Congress in testimony last year that he was aware of fewer than 10 transgender athletes among the more than 500,000 students who play N.C.A.A. sports. Yet they remain at the center of a heated cultural debate, especially when they win. In 2022, Lia Thomas, a swimmer, competed on the University of Pennsylvania women's team after taking testosterone blockers and estrogen, and became the first openly transgender woman to win an N.C.A.A. Division I title. The Trump administration announced on Tuesday that it wants the N.C.A.A. to strip her and other trans athletes of their titles. In temporarily shielding Parker and Iris from enforcement of New Hampshire's law, U.S. District Court Judge Landya McCafferty found last summer that the state had not demonstrated that concerns about fairness and safety were more than a 'hypothesized problem'' in their particular cases. Both Parker and Iris said they knew they were girls at an early age, were diagnosed with gender dysphoria, and began taking puberty-suppressing medication before the hormonal changes that, according to the opinion, underpin the divergence in average athletic performance between boys and girls. 'Parker's soccer team had a winless season last year, and Iris did not make the cut for middle-school softball,'' wrote the judge, an appointee of President Barack Obama. The potential consequences for not complying with Mr. Trump's orders have reverberated through the country. A school district in another part of New Hampshire that once defied the statewide ban on trans girls playing girls' sports felt that it had no choice but to obey Mr. Trump's orders, for fear of losing federal funding. Before Mr. Trump took office, the district, the Kearsarge Regional School District, decided to keep its girls' sports open to any trans girl who wanted to play on them, despite the state ban, because it wanted to remain in compliance with Title IX. It had one trans girl competing in girls' sports. But Mr. Trump's recent executive orders changed — and upended — everything, John Fortney, the district's superintendent of schools, said in an interview on Tuesday. The new administration's interpretation of Title IX is that in that law, 'sex' refers to whether someone is male or female at birth, and not the person's gender identity. Defining it that way meant that the school district was suddenly out of compliance with Title IX, Mr. Fortney said, compelling the district to bar trans girls from its girls' teams and change 'our internal processes and internal expectations.' 'It's like speeding,' he said. 'You say you're going to drive the speed limit, and then the speed limit goes from 70 to 55, so you're going to follow it. You may not like it, but you're going to follow it.' Mr. Fortney said he hoped the trans athlete in the district could continue to participate in sports with some level of comfort by joining her school's track and field team in the spring; that team is coed. 'When you look at how the teenagers learn to handle defeat and victory, and how to work hard for a goal, you know, athletics provides a very concentrated bit of that kind of medicine that I think everybody needs access to,' he said. 'You want a kid to have the most complete experience that they can.'
Boston Globe
12-02-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Transgender teens in N.H. to sue Trump over orders seeking to exclude them from girls' sports
Advertisement The plaintiffs had made headway last fall, as a federal judge ruled they were Get N.H. Morning Report A weekday newsletter delivering the N.H. news you need to know right to your inbox. Enter Email Sign Up One of the plaintiffs, 16-year-old Parker Tirrell, said she knew Trump would pursue policies unfriendly to transgender Americans, but she didn't realize until he began issuing a flood of orders on Inauguration Day just how swiftly he would move to do so. 'I was angry, shocked, and it was just appalling,' she said. Tirrell, a sophomore at Plymouth Regional High School, said playing soccer is one way she relates to other girls, and she is looking forward to participating in a recreational league this spring. But she worries the Trump administration could deprive her of that opportunity and more. Iris Turmelle holds her stuffed animal while sitting with her mom, Amy Manzelli, in her bedroom. Turmelle is one of the transgender girls suing to challenge President Trump's executive order on women's sports. Erin Clark/Globe Staff Even so, Tirrell said she's not disheartened. She's continuing to speak out and fight for her rights. Those in her situation have no other choice, she said. 'I just want trans people to be accepted in all areas and not be discriminated against,' she said. Her parents, Sara and Zach Tirrell, said Trump's actions amount to an attempt to erase their child from American life. Trump announced in his inaugural address that his administration would recognize only two, immutable genders: male and female. In subsequent Advertisement When it comes to social issues, Zach Tirrell said right-wing politicians have taken to scapegoating transgender people and the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion. 'Anything that goes wrong, they're blaming trans people.' he said. 'They're blaming DEI. … It's very tempting, if you don't know a trans person or you haven't gone to a sporting event and watched a girls' soccer team.' Those who support policies that seek to exclude transgender girls from girls' sports often cite concerns about safety and competitive fairness. This lawsuit argues the plaintiffs don't pose a risk to their peers and don't enjoy a competitive advantage, especially since they never experienced the physiological changes typical of testosterone-driven male puberty. Parker Tirrell and her co-plaintiff, 15-year-old Iris Turmelle, both said they encountered an uptick in bullying and harassment at their respective schools after Trump's electoral victory. Turmelle, a ninth-grader at Pembroke Academy who is thinking of playing girls' tennis this spring, said she is angry about Trump's actions. 'I feel like we're going downhill,' she said. 'It's a rollercoaster with no brakes.' Two teens challenging New Hampshire's new law banning transgender girls from girls' sports teams, Parker Tirrell, third from left, and Iris Turmelle, sixth from left, pose with their families and attorneys in Concord, N.H., Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. Holly Ramer/Associated Press Her mom, Amy Manzelli, said other students have spread hurtful rumors because she is transgender, so the past few months have been emotionally taxing for the whole family. Advertisement 'It's been really hard,' Manzelli said, her voice breaking. Manzelli said her transgender daughter is 'a real, valid, authentic person,' but the Trump administration is seeking to 'erase her identity.' Chris Erchull, a senior staff attorney with GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders — which, along with the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire and Goodwin Procter LLP, is representing the plaintiffs in this case — said Trump's executive orders serve to reinforce fear-mongering narratives and scare transgender people and their families. 'They target every aspect of public life for transgender people, and that includes employment and health care, travel, social services, schools, the ability to serve in the military. … There is also an attempt here to define transgender people out of existence,' he said. Last year, the Biden administration issued a rule that interpreted Title IX as implicitly banning discrimination on the basis of gender identity. But a federal judge in Kentucky The federal government could have appealed the decision in that case, but Trump's executive order on Feb. 5 directed his administration to comply with it instead. Although In fact, the recent shift in guidance on what Title IX means has already led at least one other New Hampshire school district to change course. Advertisement The school board for the Kearsarge Regional School District in New London, N.H., concluded last summer that the new state law on sex-separated sports Erchull said school leaders nationwide are concerned about what steps the Trump administration may take, especially since the US Department of Education promptly launched three investigations, including one into the Ultimately, it will be up to the US Supreme Court to decide how Title IX should be interpreted, he said. In the meantime, Erchull said he's focused on vindicating the rights of transgender young people. The amended complaint alleges Trump's orders are discriminatory and violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. It also alleges Trump is usurping the legislative branch's authority by 'directing agencies to terminate or withhold congressionally appropriated grants based on the President's own policy preferences.' Steven Porter can be reached at
