'It hurts too much.' Transgender girls pained by NH sports ban. Advocates vow to fight.

Parker Tirrell and Maëlle Jacques won’t be able to play on their soccer teams when New Hampshire high school fall sports start in August.

That’s because on July 19, Gov. Chris Sununu signed into law HB 1205 , a bill that bans transgender girls from competing on girls sports teams in grades 5 through 12. This means Tirrell and Jacques, who both identify as transgender girls, will be barred from participating on their teams once the law takes effect 30 days after passage.

“It's one of those things where you know it's going to happen, but then when it does, it's still really difficult and hard and sad,” said Sara Tirrell, Parker’s mother. “I think I had more tears initially than Parker, but I think Parker's also trying really hard not to think about it too much, because I think it hurts too much for her to really fully think about the consequences of what the governor did at the moment.”

Jacques said she was disappointed that politicians listened to “fearmongering” rather than the people who “care for the cause.”

In a statement , Sununu said that HB 1205 would ensure “fairness and safety in women’s sports by maintaining integrity and competitive balance in athletic competitions.” It’s similar to the rationale given by proponents of the bill , who said it is unfair for transgender girls to play on women’s sports because they have a biological advantage from going through male puberty.

Sununu also signed two other bills that deal with LGBTQ+ issues: HB 619 , which bans gender affirming surgeries for those under age 18, and HB 1312 , which expands notice requirements to parents for LGBTQ+ content in schools and allows parents to opt out their children.

Sununu vetoed HB 396 , a bill which would’ve rolled back nondiscrimination laws for transgender people and opened the door to bathroom bans, saying it “seeks to solve problems that have not presented themselves in New Hampshire.”

Litigation, elections: What comes next in the fight for transgender rights?

Chris Erchull, a senior staff attorney for GLAD, GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders, said they are considering every option available to fight the new laws, including legal action.

“Pretty much immediately after the bills were signed, I started getting contacted by families who were expressing a lot of concern about what each of the bills mean, especially the prohibition on transgender students participating in school sports programs, transgender girls specifically,” Erchull said.

Some of the bills may be able to be challenged based on federal Title IX protections, according to Erchull. He is planning on watching to see how the laws are implemented and enforced.

“Schools are told by the federal government that they must adhere to the requirement under Title IX that students must be provided every educational opportunity regardless of sex, yet the state put forward something very different,” he said. “Every girl must provide a birth certificate in order to participate in school sports, but that’s not true for every boy, right? You have a different eligibility standard right there on the face of the law.”

Tirrell said they’ve been talking to some attorneys about their plans for possible lawsuits. Jacques, a rising junior in high school, is open to getting involved if necessary.

Linds Jakows, the founder of 603 Equality, said the group is focused on the elections in November.

“We are need legislators who are champions for the LGBTQ community to introduce bills repealing all three of the bills that Sununu signed,” Jakows said. “We need to make sure to elect and reelect LGBTQ champions who we can trust to have our backs.”

But lawsuits can take years and the next legislative session isn’t until 2025. Both Jacques and Parker Tirrell must confront what comes next when they head back to school this fall.

Jacques is planning on still being a part of the soccer team through assistant coaching, a deal worked out with her coach, who she says has been very supportive. She’s hoping to still be able to run with her teammates in the track season, but doesn’t want to take away practice time on the school’s one high jump mat from teammates still allowed to compete.

Sara Tirrell, however, thinks it might be more difficult for Parker to be on the sidelines when she wants to be on the field, and she instead might choose to step away.

Jacques said she always tries to take a good perspective, but she’s frustrated. It feels to her that it was never about safety for non-transgender girls, an argument made by some legislators in support of the bills, but just “taking away rights.”

“I think it’s always important to make the best out of things like this, whether it be getting into coaching and who knows I could carry that on in life, coaching in college, for college teams, but I don't know,” Jacques said. “It gives me a lot to think about. It kind of reevaluates my whole life as it is because it (turned) my favorite thing upside down.”

Bills cause one NH family to leave the state

Abi Maxwell saw the writing on the wall earlier this year. Her family recently moved from New Hampshire to California to seek a better life for their 12-year-old daughter, who came out as transgender when she was 6 years old.

This wasn’t their first move. A couple years ago, they moved from Gilford to Concord after school board fights threatened to take away their daughter’s rights. Her daughter had faced extreme bullying, to the point the American Civil Liberties Union got involved. Maxwell had watched her neighbors, people who had known her grandparents, fight against her child’s rights.

When they moved to Concord, New Hampshire, they thought she was safe. But they started testifying against bills targeting transgender people the first winter they moved there, and the bills kept multiplying.

“It was just detrimental to my health, my husband’s health,” Maxwell said.

This past year, she decided to try to block it out, saying no to all requests for advocacy to take care of her family’s health. But as the bills advanced, it became impossible. When one of the bills advanced through the legislature, “I just woke up and I just started throwing my stuff in bags,” she said.

“it was so hard emotionally and all the other pieces, yes, I mean, we had to break our hearts in half all over again, but we had to. We knew we had to do it for self-preservation,” said Maxwell, whose family had lived in New Hampshire going back many generations. “My daughter can't live a healthy life, and we can't live a healthy life raising her in a place where the where she is framed as a threat. She can't feel safe anywhere.”

Maxwell and her husband had to leave their jobs and they are currently living off their savings. But she is thankful that they had the resources to move somewhere they feel is the safest place for transgender people in the country.

Jacques said for her family, moving isn’t in the cards. Her current plan is to head somewhere after high school, “wherever that may be in two years,” that’s better in terms of transgender rights.

The Tirrells are staying put for now, but they are closely monitoring what comes next. Tirrell said the passage of bills like these is a “slippery slope,” and she expects more medical restriction bills coming in the next cycle. Earlier this year, she said that if bills restricting other aspects of gender-affirming care start passing, their family might be “forced” to leave .

More bills in NH focused on transgender people are expected

Erchull said he has “no doubt” some legislators will bring more of these bills to Concord next year.

“One of the things that so galling about the governor signing these bills is that we know from past experience, from everything around the country that’s happening, that part of the point of these bills is to open the door to interfering in people’s lives just a little bit more,” Erchull said. “Denying educational opportunities, restricting access to medical care, these are steps that are intended to open the door.”

That was part of the reason the Maxwell family decided to make the big move even before the bills’ fate had been decided.

“We knew that even if the bills didn’t pass this year, it would all come back next year, and we cannot live like that anymore,” Maxwell said. “But then, of course, they did pass. And so, I mean, how can you live in a state where they don't let your child join things at school? Don't let her get the medical care she needs? It's just absolute insanity.”

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: 'It hurts too much.' Transgender girls pained by NH sports ban. Advocates vow to fight.