Two transgender girls can try out for and play on girls school sports teams while the teens challenge a New Hampshire ban, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
The families of Parker Tirrell, 15, and Iris Turmelle, 14, sued in August seeking to overturn the Fairness in Women's Sports Act that Republican Gov. Chris Sununu signed into law in July. While Turmelle doesn't plan to play sports until December, Tirrell successfully sought an emergency order allowing her to start soccer practice last month. That order was expiring Tuesday.
In issuing a preliminary injunction, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Landya McCafferty found Tirrell and Turmelle were likely to succeed in their lawsuit. She found that the students "demonstrated a likelihood of irreparable harm" in the absence of a preliminary order.
Before the law was enacted, "Parker had been participating in girls' sports at Plymouth Elementary School and Plymouth Regional High School, and Iris had participated in tennis and tried out for her middle school softball team," McCafferty wrote. "There is no indication in the record that plaintiffs' participation in school sports has caused the state or anyone else the slightest modicum of harm."
McCafferty noted that at a hearing last month, she brought up the possibility of a trial this fall, before winter track season starts for Turmelle. An attorney representing the students said he would be ready for a trial; an attorney for the state did not indicate that.
