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.
A Connecticut student who filed a lawsuit challenging the state's Interscholastic Athletic Conference transgender policy, told "The Faulkner Focus" on Thursday that she sued to fight "for fairness in women's sports."
Selina Soule said Thursday that throughout all four years of high school she was "forced to compete against biological males in the girls category," calling it a "very frustrating and demoralizing experience."
She went on to explain that she was forced to compete against people she knew she would "never be able to beat" because of their physical advantages.
Soule claimed that she lost the opportunity to compete for a spot in the New England Regional Championships because two biological males had been allowed to compete.
"I lost out on the opportunity to qualify for the regional New England meet in 2019 because I was beaten by two biological males and if they were not there in the race then I would have been able to qualify for the meet," she said.
Soule "wasn’t the only one impacted," according to Alliance Defending Freedom, a nonprofit organization with the goal of "advocating, training, and funding on the issues of ‘religious freedom, sanctity of life, and marriage and family,’" its website said.
Last February, Soule joined two other female high-school track competitors in filing the federal lawsuit challenging the policy that allows transgender students to compete in girls’ athletic events, the CTPost reported.
The media outlet noted Soule is the lead plaintiff in the case and was a senior at Glastonbury High School in Connecticut when the lawsuit was filed in 2020.
"It’s just a very frustrating experience because all we hope to gain by this is fairness to be restored to our sport," Soule said on Thursday.
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Kristen Waggoner, who serves as General Counsel with Alliance Defending Freedom, told Faulkner "there are real, legitimate differences between the sexes and when the law doesn’t recognize those differences it’s primarily women and girls that take the brunt of that harm and that’s what we’re seeing in Connecticut and the Biden order nationalizes that harm."
Last month, President Biden, in an executive order released on the first day of his presidency aimed at "preventing and combating discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation," called on schools across the country to allow transgender athletes to participate in the sport of their gender identity.
"I think that biology should be the reason why the sports are separated, and that’s why they have been separated and that’s why Title IX was enacted is because there are biological differences between a man and woman, and there’s nothing that can be done to change that," Soule said on Thursday.
"Title IX is a federal civil rights law passed as part of the Education Amendments of 1972," according to Harvard University, which noted that the law "protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive Federal financial assistance."
A spokesperson with the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.
However, last February, the CTPost reported the CIAC said it believed that "its current policy is appropriate under both state and federal law, and it has been defending that policy in the complaint that was filed previously with the Office of Civil Rights."
According to the outlet, the organization adopted the policy in 2013 and said that it "consulted with and relied on statements and advice from numerous bodies and organizations, including the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities, the Connecticut Department of Education, the National Federation of State High School Associations, and the Office of Civil Rights."
"We do treat all people with dignity and respect, but it’s wrong to gut legal protections for women," Waggoner said on Thursday.
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She added, "We do need to restore fair play to women’s sports and recognize that being equal doesn’t mean being identical."