Latest news with #Tirrell
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump administration seeks to dismiss lawsuit by New Hampshire transgender teens
Attorney Chris Erchull (left) speaks outside U.S. District Court of New Hampshire on behalf of Parker Tirrell (right) after a U.S. District Court judge temporarily blocked a law barring transgender girls from girls' sports teams from taking effect on Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (Photo by Ethan DeWitt/New Hampshire Bulletin) The U.S. Justice Department is defending itself against two New Hampshire transgender high school students who allege that President Donald Trump's executive orders earlier this year would unconstitutionally deprive them of playing girls' sports. In a June 6 filing, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard Lawson argued the two students, Parker Tirrell and Iris Turmelle, had not established an imminent risk of being affected by the executive orders. And he contended that even if the executive order did affect the students, the administration's intent — to prevent transgender girls from playing girls' sports — is lawful. '… The Sports Order's classification is rationally related to the physical advantages of males in sports and serves the legitimate government purpose of ensuring equal opportunities for females,' Lawson wrote. The filing comes as Tirrell and Turmelle are suing the state of New Hampshire in federal court to overturn House Bill 1205, a 2024 New Hampshire law that limits middle school and high school girls' sports teams to children who were female at birth. That law would prevent Tirrell and Turmelle, both transgender girls, from participating on their sports teams. In September, Judge Landya McCafferty of the U.S. District Court of New Hampshire issued a preliminary injunction that temporarily stops HB 1205 from applying to Tirrell and Turmelle, allowing them to continue playing while the case proceeds. That order does not apply to other transgender students in the state. But while the state law is temporarily frozen, lawyers for Tirrell and Turmelle argue Trump's executive orders this year pose a new threat. Those orders, titled 'Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government' and 'Keeping Men out of Women's Sports,' require the Department of Education to interpret Title IX, the law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in schools, to exclude transgender female athletes from female sports and warn school districts to align their policies to that interpretation or lose federal funding. In February, attorneys for Turmelle and Tirrell filed a motion to expand their lawsuit against the state to also include the Trump administration, and specifically asked the New Hampshire District Court to strike down Trump's executive orders. In its recent response, the Trump administration argues there is no evidence that the president's executive orders have affected Tirrell or Turmelle yet, and that the lawsuit seeking to stop those orders should thus be dismissed. Without that direct harm, plaintiffs have failed to state a proper claim for a lawsuit, defendants wrote. 'Plaintiffs lack constitutional standing, and their stated speculative risk of future injury is not close to imminent and may never become ripe,' the Department of Justice wrote. The plaintiffs had argued that the executive order 'to target investigations and rescind federal funding' put the girls' ability to continue playing on girls' sports teams at risk. But the government argues that that alleged threat is not strong enough. And they say the plaintiffs have not met a critical two-part test: to show that the injury is both 'imminent' — meaning it is 'certainly impending' and not just speculative — and 'particularized' — meaning it specifically affects the plaintiffs suing, and not just the general population. In an interview Monday, Chris Erchull, staff attorney for GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), rejected the government's contention that the executive orders do not pose a threat to the New Hampshire students. He pointed to the Trump administration's April lawsuit against the Maine Department of Education, in which the administration argued the state was violating Title IX by allowing transgender students to compete on girls' sports teams. That example, Erchull said, indicates that the administration could easily turn its attention on New Hampshire school districts. 'If they're not challenging the executive order in court, without court protection, the United States Department of Education can and almost certainly will go after the school districts where these two young people play sports and try to cut funding to those schools,' he said. But the Department of Justice attorneys wrote that any future funding cuts to Turmelle or Tirrell's public schools that might result from Trump's executive order would involve a number of decisions in the future and are 'far too speculative,' the government wrote. The process to cut off Title IX funds to a school district requires the Department of Education to file a notice to the school district, includes a potential hearing, and mandates a full written report to Congress, all of which can take months, the government wrote. 'Plaintiffs here do not (and cannot) plausibly allege that the Agency Defendants have even started this multi-step process for any educational program in New Hampshire, much less the two particular schools that Plaintiffs attend,' the government wrote. 'They do not (and cannot) point to even an initiated investigation in New Hampshire.' Attorneys with the Justice Department suggested that the U.S. Department of Education might not even bother with investigations into New Hampshire schools, since the state already passed a state law, HB 1205, barring transgender girls from playing girls' sports. Even if Tirrell and Turmelle are blocked from participating in sports, the executive orders do not violate the Fifth Amendment or Title IX, the government motion argues. According to the motion, Trump's executive orders are designed to protect women's sports, meaning that they uphold the purpose of Title IX. 'Because of the inherent physiological difference between males and females, the Sports Order's policy of 'oppos[ing] male competitive participation in women's sports' is substantially related to the important government interest of safety, fairness, and ensuring 'women and girls the equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports,'' the motion states. The government's motion continues by asserting that neither transgender status nor gender identity are protected classes under Title IX. In 2020, the Supreme Court held in Bostock v. Clayton County that gender identity is a protected class under the anti-sex-based discrimination provision of Title VII, in a case relating to employment law. But the Department of Justice says that decision does not apply to Title IX, and that the goal of keeping girls' sports exclusive to cisgender girls is allowed under federal law. Erchull disagrees. 'When you make a transgender status-based classification, that's a sex-based classification,' he said. 'And we have tons of precedent that says that that is entitled to heightened scrutiny, but what the federal government is saying is that that doesn't count.' The plaintiffs in the case will likely file a response brief to the government's motion in the coming weeks, and eventually the parties will appear in federal court for oral arguments, Erchull said. And attorneys on both sides are watching the Supreme Court this month. Justices are expected to issue a decision in United States v. Skrmetti, a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a Tennessee ban on transgender medical care. The decision could affect how both sides shape their arguments in New Hampshire, Erchull said.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Lawyers look to have Trump dropped from NH transgender sports ban lawsuit
Attorneys for the Trump administration have filed a motion seeking to be dropped from a lawsuit filed by two transgender teens fighting a New Hampshire law and a presidential executive order banning them from playing girls school sports. The families of Parker Tirrell, 16, and Iris Turmelle, 14, and the civil rights advocates representing them filed a motion in February in U.S. District Court in Concord to expand their lawsuit to challenge President Donald Trump's executive order banning transgender athletes from playing in girls and women's sports. In a motion filed Friday, Deputy Associate Attorney General Richard Lawson argued attorneys for Tirrell and Turmelle — following months of litigation challenging state law — are now attempting to 'drag the federal government into a lawsuit well under way not because of any imminent injury, but because of a generalized grievance with policies set by the President of the United States.' GLAD Law and the ACLU of New Hampshire are representing Tirrell and Turmelle, who sued state Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut, members of the State Board of Education and the students' respective school districts in August. The case challenges HB 1205, also known as the 'Fairness in Women's Sports Act,' signed into law last July. The law requires athletes in grades 5-12 to play on interscholastic or club teams matching the sex on their birth certificates. In September, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Landya McCafferty blocked enforcement of the law while it is being challenged in court. Trump signed an executive order on Feb. 5 called 'Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports' to bar transgender girls and women from playing in girls and women's sports. Just two days after attorneys for Tirrell and Turmelle filed their motion to add Trump as a defendant in their lawsuit, the New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association told schools to abide by the order, saying in a news release that noncompliance could lead to 'possible consequences to federal funding.' In the motion filed Friday, Lawson argued attorneys for Tirrell and Turmelle failed to claim the federal defendants have taken 'a single action' to implement the executive order against the plaintiffs, the plaintiffs' schools, or 'even in the state of New Hampshire.' 'What's worse, plaintiffs' attempts to rope the federal defendants into this case are based on flawed understanding of Equal Protection law' and separation of powers, the motion states. 'Plaintiffs lack constitutional standing and their stated speculative risk of future injury is not close to imminent and may never become ripe,' Lawson argued in his motion. The motion asks the judge to dismiss the claims against Trump, the justice and education departments and department heads. 'Plaintiffs assert a Fifth Amendment equal protection claim alleging that the 'Sports Order' impermissibly discriminates 'on the basis of sex,'' Lawson wrote, adding the plaintiffs also argued the order discriminates based on 'transgender status.' 'The Sports Order simply reaffirms that males and females are not similarly situated when it comes to sports,' Lawson wrote. 'The Supreme Court recognizes that 'differences between men and women' are 'enduring' and thus sex is not an inherently 'proscribed classification.' The biological differences between the sexes make them dissimilarly situated in sports, with males having a distinct physical advantage.'
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
The Independent
29-03-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Two transgender teenagers become first to challenge Trump's ‘Women's Sports' order
Parker Tirrell, 16, enjoys her art classes, scrolling on TikTok and working at her new job at a pet store. But most of all, the transgender teen loves playing soccer. Until last year, that wasn't a problem. 'I was just living my life like any normal person,' said Tirrell, who has played since she was 4. 'I was accepted. I had a nice, steady team that I played on all the time.' Then came a cascade of obstacles, starting with a state ban on transgender girls in girls' sports, and most recently President Donald Trump 's Feb. 5 executive order, 'Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports." Now, life is anything but normal. Tirrell, along with Iris Turmelle, 15, another transgender girl, are the first to challenge Trump's order, six months after suing their own state over its ban and getting a court order allowing them to play. '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 told The Associated Press in an interview. '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.' Transgender people represent a very small part of the nation's youth population – about 1.4% of teens ages 13 to 17, about 300,000 people. Turmelle, who likes trying different sports, described the past couple of years as stressful, difficult, annoying and overwhelming — 'so many laws targeting you and your community for who you are and what you stand for and just your identity.' One message she hopes to get across to others is 'that we are human.' '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.' Trump and others say that the ban is needed to make girls' sports fair and safe. The idea has gotten support across the U.S. as Trump campaigned vigorously against rights for transgender people. During the November election, AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 115,000 voters nationwide, found about half of voters overall said support for transgender rights in government and society has gone too far. About one-quarter said support has been about right and about 2 in 10 said support has not gone far enough. About half of the states have adopted similar measures to New Hampshire's sports ban. Even some Democrats, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, have come out against letting transgender girls play on girls' teams. Trump's 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 interpreting 'sex' as the gender someone was assigned at birth. Trump's administration has been using the law to push against schools and states that provide accommodations for transgender students. The order is one of a series Trump has signed targeting transgender and nonbinary people. The U.S. Supreme Court is looking at several cases, including one from Tennessee over whether state bans on treating transgender minors violate the Constitution. At least two other states have asked the court to review rulings that blocked the enforcement of state laws prohibiting transgender athletes from competing in sports. A Texas -based group called Female Athletes United has asked to intervene in Tirrell and Turmelle's lawsuit to defend Trump's orders. The group said in their filing that it has members across the U.S. who want to play on a safe and level playing field, 'and cannot do so if they are forced to compete against males.' The Trump administration has not responded yet to Tirrell and Turmelle's lawsuit. The U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement to AP that allowing boys to participate in girls' sports is unfair and dangerous. For both New Hampshire teens, the argument that they hold an unfair advantage falls flat. Tirrell says she's less muscular than other girls on her 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.' Turmelle and Tirrell are balancing school and normal life with advocacy, testifying against bills they say target their rights. Tirrell recently testified against a bill that would stop hormone treatments and puberty blockers for transgender youth. Both teens have been receiving puberty-blocking medication and hormone therapy, so they will not go through male puberty. Turmelle, a high school freshman, began scrawling on postcards when she was in elementary school asking legislative members, 'Please let me play on the girls' teams.' Last year, she was honored by the New Hampshire Women's Foundation as one of its 'trailblazing women' for her activism. After a controversy where two dads from an opposing team were banned from school grounds for wearing pink wristbands marked 'XX' to represent female chromosomes at a game, Tirrell said she got a nice note from two of the other team's players She pinned it up in her room, saying, 'It felt wonderful.' 'We think you are so inspiring for continuing, despite all the negativity,' it said. 'We support you and thank you. You are a great role model for young girls!' Turmelle, who enjoys playing Minecraft with friends, adding to her collection of mineral rocks displayed in her room, and tending to the family's chickens, has her eye on tennis now. She recently tried out for and made the girls' team. 'I want to have the option to do it, because I want to have the freedom to choose,' she said of sports, adding, 'It just makes me feel accepted, and who doesn't want to be accepted?'
Yahoo
29-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Juggling advocacy with schoolwork, 2 New Hampshire transgender girls fight to play team sports
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Parker Tirrell, 16, enjoys her art classes, scrolling on TikTok and working at her new job at a pet store. But most of all, the transgender teen loves playing soccer. Until last year, that wasn't a problem. 'I was just living my life like any normal person,' said Tirrell, who has played since she was 4. 'I was accepted. I had a nice, steady team that I played on all the time.' Then came a cascade of obstacles, starting with a state ban on transgender girls in girls' sports, and most recently President Donald Trump's Feb. 5 executive order, 'Keeping Men Out of Women's Sports." Now, life is anything but normal. Tirrell, along with Iris Turmelle, 15, another transgender girl, are the first to challenge Trump's order, six months after suing their own state over its ban and getting a court order allowing them to play. '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 told The Associated Press in an interview. '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.' Transgender people represent a very small part of the nation's youth population – about 1.4% of teens ages 13 to 17, about 300,000 people. Turmelle, who likes trying different sports, described the past couple of years as stressful, difficult, annoying and overwhelming — 'so many laws targeting you and your community for who you are and what you stand for and just your identity.' One message she hopes to get across to others is 'that we are human.' '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.' Supporters of the ban say it's about fairness and safety Trump and others say that the ban is needed to make girls' sports fair and safe. The idea has gotten support across the U.S. as Trump campaigned vigorously against rights for transgender people. During the November election, AP VoteCast, a survey of more than 115,000 voters nationwide, found about half of voters overall said support for transgender rights in government and society has gone too far. About one-quarter said support has been about right and about 2 in 10 said support has not gone far enough. About half of the states have adopted similar measures to New Hampshire's sports ban. Even some Democrats, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a potential 2028 presidential candidate, have come out against letting transgender girls play on girls' teams. Trump's 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 interpreting 'sex' as the gender someone was assigned at birth. Trump's administration has been using the law to push against schools and states that provide accommodations for transgender students. The order is one of a series Trump has signed targeting transgender and nonbinary people. The U.S. Supreme Court is looking at several cases, including one from Tennessee over whether state bans on treating transgender minors violate the Constitution. At least two other states have asked the court to review rulings that blocked the enforcement of state laws prohibiting transgender athletes from competing in sports. A Texas-based group called Female Athletes United has asked to intervene in Tirrell and Turmelle's lawsuit to defend Trump's orders. The group said in their filing that it has members across the U.S. who want to play on a safe and level playing field, 'and cannot do so if they are forced to compete against males.' The Trump administration has not responded yet to Tirrell and Turmelle's lawsuit. The U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement to AP that allowing boys to participate in girls' sports is unfair and dangerous. For both New Hampshire teens, the argument that they hold an unfair advantage falls flat. Tirrell says she's less muscular than other girls on her 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.' Balancing being a teen with being an advocate Turmelle and Tirrell are balancing school and normal life with advocacy, testifying against bills they say target their rights. Tirrell recently testified against a bill that would stop hormone treatments and puberty blockers for transgender youth. Both teens have been receiving puberty-blocking medication and hormone therapy, so they will not go through male puberty. Turmelle, a high school freshman, began scrawling on postcards when she was in elementary school asking legislative members, 'Please let me play on the girls' teams.' Last year, she was honored by the New Hampshire Women's Foundation as one of its 'trailblazing women' for her activism. After a controversy where two dads from an opposing team were banned from school grounds for wearing pink wristbands marked 'XX' to represent female chromosomes at a game, Tirrell said she got a nice note from two of the other team's players She pinned it up in her room, saying, 'It felt wonderful.' 'We think you are so inspiring for continuing, despite all the negativity,' it said. 'We support you and thank you. You are a great role model for young girls!' Turmelle, who enjoys playing Minecraft with friends, adding to her collection of mineral rocks displayed in her room, and tending to the family's chickens, has her eye on tennis now. She recently tried out for and made the girls' team. 'I want to have the option to do it, because I want to have the freedom to choose,' she said of sports, adding, 'It just makes me feel accepted, and who doesn't want to be accepted?'
