Four female athletes that wanted to overturn a Connecticut policy that allows males that identify as female to compete in girls’ athletic events have lost their case in the second Circuit Court of Appeals. A three Judge panel of the federal court confirmed a lower court decision on Friday dismissing Soule v. Connecticut Association of Schools, Inc., where the plaintiffs argued the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference’s policy that allows transgender students to compete on girls’ teams puts female athletes at a disadvantage and deprived them of opportunities.
The plaintiffs asked the court for an injunction to alter track records and erase the wins of two transgender athletes, biological males, who broke 17 girls’ track meet records and took 15 women’s state track championship titles. The plaintiffs, Selina Soule, Chelsea Mitchell, Alanna Smith, and Ashley Nicoletti and their mothers were represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). The ADF attorneys argued that permitting transgender athletes to compete on girls teams results in “student who are born female” having materially fewer opportunities for victory, public recognition, athletic scholarships, and future employment than “students who are born male.” Alleging that this is a violation of Title IX rules against sex discrimination.
The second circuit judges wrote, “Like the district court, we are unpersuaded, with respect to the claim for an injunction to alter records, that Plaintiffs have established the injury in fact and redressability requirements for standing; both fail for reasons of speculation, And because we conclude that the CIAC and its member schools did not have adequate notice that the Policy violates Title IX – indeed, they had notice to the contrary – Plaintiff’s claims for damages must be dismissed,”
The American Civil Liberties Union, that represented Andraya Yearwood and terry Miller and defended the CIAC policy in court, celebrated the decision. With Joshua Block, senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project stating, “Today’s ruling is a critical victory for fairness, equality, and inclusion, The court rejected the baseless zero-sum arguments presented by the opposition to this policy and ultimately found transgender girls have as much a right to play as cisgender girls under Title IX. This critical victory strikes at the heart of political attacks against transgender youth while helping ensure every young person has the right to play.”
Polls have shown that in America people are accepting of transgender people in society, however, many disagree with permitting biological males to compete in girls’ and women’s sports teams. A Washington Post-University of Maryland survey released in June found that 58% of Americans said “transgender women and girls” should not “be allowed to compete in sports with other women and girls” at the collegiate level, and 55% said the same for high school sports. Roughly 68 percent of respondents said that if transgender girls are allowed to compete against biological girls in youth sports, “transgender girls would have a competitive advantage over other girls.”
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