Judge allows New Hampshire transgender teen to keep playing on girls soccer team, for now

A federal judge ruled Monday that a transgender high school student can temporarily attend girls soccer team practice and other team activities until a lawsuit challenging New Hampshire’s new state law banning transgender girls from girls sports plays out in court, according to The Boston Globe.

The families of the student, Parker Tirrell, and another student, Iris Turmelle, filed a lawsuit last week challenging the new state law that went into effect on Monday, preventing them from participating in girls sports at their public high schools.

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Tirrell is a sophomore looking to play on her school’s girls soccer team for the second year, while Turmelle is a freshman hoping to try out for the school’s tennis and track and field teams, according to the lawsuit.

Both teens have been diagnosed with gender dysphoria and take puberty-blocking medication and hormone therapy to align their physical development with their female identities, the lawsuit stated.

For Tirrell, soccer is a passion, but the lawsuit said both girls hope to participate in sports as a way to make friends, feel connected to a peer group and cope with the stresses they experience in life.

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The lawsuit claims that New Hampshire’s new law denies transgender teens equal educational opportunities and “singles them out for discrimination solely because they are transgender, in violation of federal law and constitutional guarantees of equal protection.”

The teens and their families are being represented by lawyers with the GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders — commonly known as GLAD — the ACLU of New Hampshire, and Goodwin.

“The law denies them the many educational, social, and physical and mental health benefits that come with playing sports, isolating them from friends and teammates while singling them out for discrimination solely because they are transgender girls,” GLAD said in a statement .

However, the temporary agreement that was granted on Monday will allow Tirrell to participate on the girls' soccer team, as their season has already started, during the initial phase of the lawsuit.