The families of three female high school runners filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday seeking to block transgender athletes in Connecticut from participating in girls sports.
Selina Soule, a senior at Glastonbury High School, Chelsea Mitchell, a senior at Canton High School and Alanna Smith, a sophomore at Danbury High School are represented by the conservative nonprofit organization Alliance Defending Freedom. They argue that allowing athletes with male anatomy to compete has deprived them of track titles and scholarship opportunities.
“Mentally and physically, we know the outcome before the race even starts,” said Smith, who is the daughter of former Major League pitcher Lee Smith. “That biological unfairness doesn’t go away because of what someone believes about gender identity. All girls deserve the chance to compete on a level playing field.”
The lawsuit was filed against the Connecticut Association of Schools-Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference and the boards of education in Bloomfield, Cromwell, Glastonbury, Canton and Danbury.
“Forcing girls to be spectators in their own sports is completely at odds with Title IX, a federal law designed to create equal opportunities for women in education and athletics,” attorney Christiana Holcomb said. “Connecticut’s policy violates that law and reverses nearly 50 years of advances for women.”
The Connecticut Association of Schools-Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference says its policy follows a state anti-discrimination law that says students must be treated in school by the gender with which they identify and the group believes the policy is “appropriate under both state and federal law.”
The lawsuit follows a Title IX complaint filed last June by the girls’ families and the Alliance Defending Freedom with the U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, which is investigating the policy.
The lawsuit centers on two transgender sprinters, Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood, who have frequently outperformed their cisgender competitors.
The two seniors have combined to win 15 girls state indoor or outdoor championship races since 2017, according to the lawsuit.
The three plaintiffs have competed directly against them, almost always losing to Miller and usually behind Yearwood. Mitchell finished third in the 2019 state championship in the girls 55-meter indoor track competition behind Miller and Yearwood.
“Our dream is not to come in second or third place, but to win fair and square,” Mitchell said. “All we’re asking for is a fair chance.”
Yearwood, of Cromwell High School, and Miller, of Bloomfield High School, have both defended their participation in girls events.
Yearwood told The Associated Press in February 2019 that there are many differences among athletes that may give one a physical advantage over another, and that she does not think she has an unfair advantage.
“One high jumper could be taller and have longer legs than another, but the other could have perfect form, and then do better,” she said. “One sprinter could have parents who spend so much money on personal training for their child, which in turn, would cause that child to run faster.”
Yearwood’s mother said the athlete had no immediate comment on Wednesday’s lawsuit. Miller did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The attorneys are asking the court to prevent the transgender girls from competing while the lawsuit moves forward. No hearing date on that request had been scheduled Wednesday, the day before the state’s indoor track championships begin.
Connecticut is one of 17 states that allowed transgender high school athletes to compete without restrictions in 2019, according to Transathlete.com, which tracks state policies in high school sports across the country. Eight states had restrictions that make it difficult for transgender athletes to compete while in school, such requiring athletes to compete under the gender on their birth certificate, or allowing them to participate only after going through sex reassignment procedures or hormone therapies, according to Transathlete.
Yearwood and Miller have said they are still in the process of transitioning but have declined to provide details.
via newsmax
Wishing these girls all the luck with the lawsuit. Sorry she-males, couldn’t compete as a man so you switch and can dominate being a girl?
Can’t understand the confusion of those who think they are “something else” but it’s their life. But don’t screw up what actual “REAL” girls and women have accomplished for so many years. Girls fought hard to get their sports and their athletic talents recognized. To be able to go after sports scholarships for college.
Transgenders want to compete, start your OWN sports programs. Pay for it yourself as well.
GOD BLESS PRESIDENT TRUMP! GOD HELP THE USA!
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/02/13/ayanna-pressley-women-still-shackled-in-2020-constitution-is-sexist-by-its-very-design/
Amazing, Ms. Pressley talking about the Constitution being sexist because it’s all about abortions.
“National Right to Life is strongly opposed to adding the 1972 ERA language to the U.S. Constitution, because it would provide a powerful legal weapon with which to challenge virtually any limits on abortion, and to require unlimited government funding of abortion.”
So the only right the left is worried about for women is abortions. Amazing. I guess those so-called “men” will benefit from this law too. Wow, what a world we are being forced to live in.
GOD BLESS PRESIDENT TRUMP! GOD HELP THE USA!
Transgenders should not be allowed to participate in female sports. You can put a lot of technical details on the biology but all it is is a male with its pecker cut off….
How about when these two “girls” are going to compete in a race have all the other real girls not run? Let them have a hollow victory.
Its a hollow victory even if they compete against real girls. Heck its a boy, no matter what he thinks he dresses up as. Total advantage.
Hey they are allowing girls to compete in boys sports, like football. so let these “I think I’m a girl” boys play on boys sports. Might dress like girls but they are still boys.
Leave the girls sports alone. REAL girls should only be allowed to compete. Boys who think they are girls, play on boys sports. Plus it keeps the “I’m a girl but really a boy” out of the REAL girls locker rooms.
GOD BLESS PRESIDENT TRUMP! GOD HELP THE USA!
Three cheers for the high school girls who filed a lawsuit to fight transgender unfairness in sports.
Boys and men cannot be girls and women, because chromosomes dictate gender. They can cross dress, have surgery, and take hormones to try to change genders, but their chromosomes tell the truth. Boys and men claiming to be girls and women in order to participate in female sporting events have an unfair advantage. They are bigger, stronger and faster than real females. Women’s cycling events have also been unfairly invaded by transgender men claiming to be women athletes. It’s outrageous that transgender boys and men are allowed to participate and thereby dominate in girls and women’s athletic events. That nonsense must be stopped. Are you listening, Olympic Committee?
https://www.breitbart.com/sports/2020/02/14/megan-youngren-become-first-transgender-runner-compete-us-olympic-marathon-trials/
Nope Olympic Committee isn’t listening because here’s the first he/she for the US team.
Yep no matter all the drugs he/she takes, what parts are removed or put on, doesn’t change your DNA. No wonder after 10 years the depression starts because their body is rejecting what it is being MADE to become. The “woke” group can ignore the negative research of this so called procedure all they want.
Pretty soon men will have their own sports and men, who think they are women will take over the women’s sports. And real women, well you won’t matter any more. All that work for women to become equal, and here you are back to square one because of the ‘woke’ crowd. Shame.
GOD BLESS PRESIDENT TRUMP! GOD HELP THE USA!
It is not fair for guys to be able to compete as women. It would be a drag race. Start a new league for TG,s call it the DAISY CHAIN LEAGUE.