New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold a West Virginia law that bars transgender girls from playing girls sports, as a similar measure in New Hampshire faces a court challenge.
A federal appeals court ruled in April that West Virginia had violated a transgender student’s rights under Title IX, which outlaws sex-based discrimination in schools, when it prohibited her from competing in girls sports.
In an amicus brief filed Aug. 14, Formella joined 25 other Republican attorneys general in calling on the Supreme Court to reverse that decision.
They argue Title IX bars discrimination based on “biological sex,” not gender identity. And they say allowing trans girls to compete would undermine Title IX’s purpose, by depriving other girls of a level playing field.
The brief, which was previously reported by New Hampshire Journal, says laws like West Virginia and New Hampshire’s “reflect basic biology.”
“[T]hey also reflect the fact that ignoring basic biology robs women and girls of an equal opportunity to compete for athletic accolades,” it says.
It says Title IX guarantees “that female students must enjoy equal treatment with their male peers” and not that “individuals are entitled to be treated like whatever gender they profess.”
The Supreme Court is still deciding whether to take up the West Virginia case. But it could have implications for the more than two dozen states, including New Hampshire, that have passed laws limiting girls’ school sports to students assigned female at birth.
On Friday, two transgender teenagers filed a lawsuit in federal court in Concord challenging New Hampshire’s law, which Gov. Chris Sununu signed a month ago.
The students, 14-year-old Iris Turmelle of Pembroke and 15-year-old Parker Tirrell of Plymouth, argue the law violates Title IX by barring them from school activities solely because they are trans.
They say in their lawsuit that they have lived as girls for years in every aspect of their lives, and sports are a source of joy and friendship for them.
The lawsuit also says both are receiving hormone therapy, meaning they won’t develop the physical traits associated with male puberty and so have no inherent athletic advantage over other girls.
Judge Landya McCafferty sided with the students in a preliminary ruling this week, allowing Tirrell to join her school’s soccer team while the lawsuit moves forward.
School sports have increasingly become a flashpoint in political fights over gender, in New Hampshire and nationally. The sports ban was one of several restrictions on transgender youth proposed by New Hampshire Republicans in recent years. Earlier this summer, Sununu also signed a law prohibiting certain gender-affirming surgeries for minors.