CT student sues over transgender athlete policy: 'We are fighting for fairness in women's sports'
Track athlete Selina Soule tells 'The Faulkner Focus' why she filed a lawsuit challenging a Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference transgender policy.
Oral arguments are set to begin Thursday in a case involving four female athletes who challenged a Connecticut policy that allows males who identify as female to compete in girls’ athletic events.
Alliance Defending Freedom, which is representing track athletes Selina Soule, Alanna Smith, Chelsea Mitchell, and Ashley Nicoletti in Soule v. Connecticut Association of Schools, said in a press release ahead of arguments that the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference’s policy resulted in males who identify as female "consistently depriving" the women of honors and opportunities to compete at elite levels. The group argues, for instance, that the young women were denied medals and/or advancement opportunities. A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit on April 25, 2021, but the plaintiffs have appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit.
"What we're arguing before the court tomorrow at the Second Circuit is that the court should allow this case to move forward, that girls should be able to make their case in court and demonstrate that males coming in and dominating girls' sports is a clear violation of Title IX," ADF Senior Counsel Christiana Kiefer told Fox News Digital.
The ACLU is among those defending Andraya Yearwood and Terry Miller, two transgender student athletes who have since graduated from Connecticut high schools. U.S. District Court Judge Robert Chatigny dismissed the lawsuit in April on procedural grounds, saying in the ruling that there was no dispute to resolve because the two transgender athletes have graduated, and the plaintiffs could not identify other female transgender athletes.
ACLU of Connecticut didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lawmakers listen as parents speak about the prospect of their children competing against transgender girls in school sports at the Utah State Capitol on March 25, 2022, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Samuel Metz, File)
"We think everyone is protected under Title IX on the same basis, and that's based on their biological sex," Kiefer continued. "The whole reason that we have women's sports as a separate category is because there are actual physical differences between males and females. Science shows that there's anywhere from a 10 to a 50% performance advantage that males have over their female counterparts. So, if we want a future where girls like my clients, Selina, Chelsea, Alanna can continue to compete to be the best that they can to earn college scholarships, to showcase their talents, then we have to protect the integrity of women's sports."
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"Males will always have inherent physical advantages over comparably talented and trained girls; Title IX’s whole purpose was to ensure that girls had equal athletic opportunities to compete—and win—in girls’ sports events," ADF Senior Counsel Roger Brooks, who will be arguing before the court on behalf of the female athletes in Thursday's oral arguments said in a press release. "And when our laws and policies fail to recognize the real physical differences between males and females, women and girls bear the brunt of the harm. It’s our hope that the 2nd Circuit will give the young women we represent the right to pursue their case and put women’s sports back on a level playing field."
The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference declined to comment ahead of the hearing when Fox News Digital reached out.
Oklahoma Gov. Stitt signs 'Save Women's Sports Act' into law (Fox News Digital/Lisa Bennatan)
On the 50th anniversary of Title IX, a federal civil rights law established in 1972 designed to create equal opportunities for women in education and athletics, in July, President Biden unveiled new draft rules that sparked the fury of many parents for how the new proposals would expand the definition of sex.
The proposed regulations would sweep gender identity into the law’s protections, "strengthen[ing] protections for LGBTQIA+ students who face discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity," according to the Department of Education.
Should the draft rules become law, Kiefer predicted it would have a "devastating impact" on female athletes.
Other female athletes have spoken out against policies they've argued are unfair to women's sports. Notably, former All-American University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines has blasted policies allowing Lia Thomas, a former transgender athlete for the University of Pennsylvania, to compete against her in last year's NCAA tournaments.
University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas and Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines react after finishing tied for 5th in the 200 Freestyle finals at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships on March 18th, 2022, at the McAuley Aquatic Center in Atlanta Georgia. (Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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Gaines competed against Thomas in her senior year at the 200-meter race at the NCAA Championships. After tying with Thomas down to the hundredth of a second, Gaines said Thomas was given the trophy for "photo purposes" while Gaines had to wait for hers to be sent to her in the mail. She suggested the integrity of women's sports was at stake.
"I think people forget that women's sports were a protected group," Gaines said on Fox Nation's "Tucker Carlson Today." "The category was made because the playing field was not level by any means when you have them competing against men," Gaines said. "And so obviously it was created to ensure that fairness. And now that we are kind of completely flipping that, it devalues what it was created for."