In August, the Kearsarge District School Board took up the difficult question of how to comply with a new law barring transgender girls from middle school and high school sports.
Earlier that summer, Gov. Chris Sununu introduced legislation that would allow schools to separate sports teams into boys’, girls’ and co-ed teams, and allow only children born biologically female to participate on girls’ sports teams. , had signed House Bill 1205. .
Kearsarge had a student, a transgender girl, who would be banned from playing girls’ soccer if the school followed state law. The board was meeting to decide whether the district should do so.
The body deliberated behind closed doors in closed meetings. But the end result was clear. Kearsarge ended up allowing the student to play on the team in defiance of state law.
This decision was made in a challenging environment for the school district. Congress passed a law requiring transgender girls to be barred from women’s sports. However, federal law prohibits any discrimination based on gender under Title IX of the Education Act, and school districts that violate the law could lose federal funding. This year, the law was updated by the Ministry of Education to explicitly prohibit discrimination based on a person’s sexual orientation and gender identity.
Transgender rights advocates say Title IX takes precedence and that schools should follow Title IX over state law. Kearsarge’s board of directors agreed. However, other school districts have chosen to follow state law and exclude transgender girls from girls’ sports, and these districts are now facing lawsuits.
New Hampshire Board of Education Executive Director Barrett Christina said he agrees with Kearsarge’s approach.
“It is impossible to comply with both House Bill 1205 and recent Title IX regulations,” he said in an interview. “There is simply no way to comply with both.”
On August 15, Plymouth Regional High School notified the mother of transgender girl Parker Tyrrell that she would not be allowed to play on the soccer team, citing legal compliance requirements.
The American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire is currently calling on the school board, Department of Education Secretary Frank Edelblut, the State Board of Education, and Tyrrell’s school district, Pemi Baker Regional School District, to block the law. He claims that he is suing. is unconstitutional. They are also suing the Pembroke School District to allow another transgender student, Iris Turmel, to participate.
U.S. District Judge Randia McCafferty issued a temporary restraining order allowing Tyrrell to play on the women’s soccer team in violation of the law, but the order applied only to Tyrrell and Turmel. It does not apply to all transgender students in the state.
Compliance with HB 1205 is a vexing question for school boards and school districts.
HB 1205 creates the threat of lawsuits against school districts that do not comply. The law provides that “students who are deprived of athletic opportunities or suffer direct or indirect harm as a result of a school’s willful violation of the law may seek injunctive relief, damages, or other relief privately.” shall have a cause of action.” Available under the law for schools. ”
So far, no lawsuits have been filed against the Kearsarge Regional School District, the only school currently not in compliance with the law.
On the other hand, Title IX contains clear prohibitions against school discrimination, and Kearsarge’s directors are not at risk of losing federal revenue if they are found not to be in compliance by the U.S. Department of Education. has expressed concern.
The question of whether Title IX’s sexual discrimination prohibitions apply to transgender athletes barred from sports teams is a central issue in the federal lawsuit involving Tyrrell and Turmel.
The state attorney general’s office said Title IX was originally created to protect women’s sports, and state law does the same by protecting the fairness and safety of female athletes by banning transgender girls. He claimed to be aiming for Lawyers for Mr. Tyrrell and Mr. Turmel argue that both girls are undergoing hormone therapy, which robs them of their physical superiority over other female students.
The district court’s preliminary ruling is likely to be appealed, and the case is expected to move to a full trial in the coming months. But Christina said McCafferty’s decision still shows school districts that they don’t have to ban transgender girls from sports teams.
“The fact that the court is already going to rule that the law itself is unconstitutional is kind of a signal to anyone looking to file further challenges.”
Beyond the issue of compliance with federal law, the Kearsarge board also faced tremendous pressure from transgender advocates, including the student herself, to include her on the soccer team.
Many parents of transgender children in the state, including Sarah Tyrrell and Michelle Silly Foisy, testified in favor of the move, citing the high suicide rate among transgender youth and the benefits of access to sports. Pediatrician Christine Arsenault, who pointed this out, agrees.
Other advocates also spoke out against the decision to allow transgender girls to participate, including Beth Scare and Stephen Scare, who said there was a potential for unfair advantage.
The students themselves testified that they had been playing soccer since the age of three and personally benefited from the sociability and sense of belonging.
As the issue continues to feature in political campaign rhetoric, sporting events have become a new flashpoint of conflict, particularly among Republican candidates who oppose transgender women participating in women’s sports.
A group of Bowe’s parents are suing the school district in federal court, claiming the school district barred him from attending sporting events because he wore a pink armband during a game against Plymouth. The armband, marked with an ‘XX’ to indicate female chromosomes, was worn as a protest against Tyrrell, who played for the Plymouth team.
The parents argued that their First Amendment rights were being violated. The school district claims the protests are disruptive and harassing.
Christina declined to comment on the Bow School District’s response to the incident. However, the School Board Association has a template policy that it encourages school boards to adopt regarding free speech issues.
“No person may, on school property or during any school-sponsored or approved activity, express his or her actual or perceived age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status, familial status, “You may not engage in conduct of a harassing or discriminatory nature based on disability, religion, national origin, race, color…,” the sample policy states.
