A federal appeals court on Friday dismissed a challenge to Connecticut’s policy of allowing transgender girls to participate in girls’ high school sports and dismissed the arguments of four cisgender runners who said they were wrongfully coerced to compete against transgender athletes to compete.
A three-judge panel of the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City affirmed the dismissal of a complaint brought by a lower court judge challenging the policy. The panel said the four cisgender athletes have no standing to sue – in part because their claims that they have been denied victories, state titles and athletic scholarship opportunities are speculative.
“All four plaintiffs regularly competed in state track championships as high school athletes, where plaintiffs had the opportunity to compete for state titles at various events,” the decision reads. “And on numerous occasions, the plaintiffs have actually been ‘champions’, taking first place at various events, sometimes even when competing against (transgender athletes).”
In this 2019 file photo, Bloomfield High School transgender athlete Terry Miller, second from left, wins the final of the 55-meter dash over transgender athlete Andraya Yearwood (far left) and other runners in the Connecticut Girls Class S Indoor careers that meet at Hillhouse High School in New Haven. In response to a lawsuit filed by three high school runners, the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference claims it is exempt from Title IX, which guarantees women and girls equal access to education, including athletics. The lawsuit argues that male anatomy gives trans runners an unfair advantage in violation of Title IX
The judges added, “The plaintiffs simply weren’t denied the opportunity to become champions.”
The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Council argued that its policies are aimed at conforming to a state law requiring that all high school students be treated according to their gender identity. It also said the policy is consistent with Title IX, the federal law that gives girls equal educational opportunities, including in athletics.
The American Civil Liberties Union defended the two transgender athletes at the center of the lawsuit – Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood.
“Today’s ruling is a crucial victory for fairness, equality and inclusion,” said Joshua Block, an advocate for the ACLU’s LGBTQ and HIV Project, in a statement. “This crucial victory hits the heart of political attacks against transgender youth and helps ensure every young person has the right to play.”
The American Civil Liberties Union defended the two transgender athletes at the center of the lawsuit – Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood (pictured).
The ability of transgender athletes to compete in sport is the subject of an ongoing national debate. At least 12 Republican-led states have passed laws banning transgender women or girls from sports based on the premise that it gives them an unfair competitive advantage.
Transgender rights advocates oppose such laws, which are not just about sport, but another way of humiliating and attacking transgender youth.
Christiana Kiefer, an attorney for the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom who represented the four Connecticut cisgender athletes, said she and other attorneys for the alliance are considering how to respond, including potentially asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decision check from Friday.
“Our customers, like all women athletes across the country, deserve fair competition,” Kiefer said in a phone interview. “And that means fair and equal quality of competition, and that just doesn’t happen when you’re forced to compete against biological males in your sport.”
Kiefer added, “The vast majority of the American public recognizes that in order to have fair sport, we must protect the female category, and I think you’re seeing this trend increasingly as states across the country pass laws protecting women’s sports. … This is certainly not the end of the fight for fairness for female athletes.”
Alanna Smith, a sophomore at Danbury High School, speaks during a press conference at the Connecticut State Capitol in Hartford, Connecticut on Wednesday, February 12, 2020. Smith, the daughter of former major league pitcher Lee Smith, is among three girls suing to block a state policy that allows transgender athletes to compete in girls’ sports
The plaintiffs are seeking injunctions to prohibit enforcement of state policies on transgender athletes and removing records made by transgender athletes from the books, as well as monetary damages.
In an argument before a Connecticut federal judge in February 2021, Roger Brooks, another attorney for the Alliance Defending Freedom, said Title IX guarantees girls “equal quality” of competition, which he says is being denied by targeting people with what he described running the race had inherent physiological benefits.
Brooks said transgender sprinters unfairly won 15 championship races between 2017 and 2020 and cost cisgender girls the opportunity to advance to other races 85 times.
Miller and Yearwood, the transgender sprinters from Bloomfield and Cromwell, respectively, often outperformed their cisgender competitors.
The Plaintiffs went head-to-head with them, almost always losing to Miller, and usually finishing behind Yearwood. One of the plaintiffs, Chelsea Mitchell of Canton High School, placed third at the 2019 state championship in the girls’ 55-meter indoor track event behind Miller and Yearwood.
All athletes have now graduated from high school.