Images: https://thepostmillennial.com/exclusive-girl-track-stars-take-connecticut-to-court-over-biological-males-in-their-sport
Female track stars are taking the state of Connecticut to Court over biological males being allowed to compare against them in their sport.
The case centers on four high school athletes in Connecticut who had to compete against two biological male athletes who identified as transgender. The two female athletes continued to lose to the biological males, and they felt this was unfair, and that biological women in athletes would continue to lose out to more things than just matches–things like scholarships and other monetary awards. The female athletes brought suit against the state of Connecticut for Title IX violations. Title IX is a provision in the Civil Rights Act that requires equal opportunity for male and female athletes in education
Under Title IX, discrimination on the basis of sex can include sexual harassment or sexual violence, such as rape, sexual assault, sexual battery, and sexual coercion.
Connecticut’s Department of Education protects transgender students from discrimination based on gender identity or expression and claims those protections are also guaranteed under Title IX.
Selina Soule, one of the biological female track athletes, is suing the state over its “unfair” transgender sports policy. She argued that the policy puts female athletes at a disadvantage. She is suing with the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian legal advocacy group.
During an interview on “Fox & Friends First” recently, she that women’s sports are being “robbed.”
According to Soule, she competed against biological males throughout her four years in high school and lost over a dozen times.
“I lost out on qualifying spots for the meets, better placement, and possibly even scholarship opportunities,” she said.
Christiana Kiefer, senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, argued the inclusion of transgender protections is a “complete redefinition” of Title IX.
“That’s not only unlawful but, as we’ve seen in the state of Connecticut, will absolutely devastate women’s sports,” Kiefer said.
The Alliance Defending Freedom looks to appeal a ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Robert Chatigny, who dismissed the lawsuit in April on procedural grounds, saying there was no dispute to resolve because the two transgender athletes have graduated. The plaintiffs were unable to identify other female transgender athletes, Fox News reported.
“Each one of the athletes has suffered either been bumped down in the rankings or denied championship titles,” Kiefer said.
Female runners Soule, Alana Smith and Chelsea Mitchelll filed suit against the state of Connecticut in February 2020, alleging that the state was in clear violation of Title IX. By allowing males to compete against women, the suit claimed, Connecticut was not providing a fair playing field for female athletes, The Post Millennial reported.
The case was thrown out in 2021 because a federal judge claimed the female athletes had no standing. However, the ADF claimed that “having records that don’t rightly reflect your achievements is a sufficient injury to have Article Three standing in federal court and to keep moving forward.”
“Selina Soule lost the opportunity to advance to the next level of the statewide competition because of males, and so we want the girls’ records to be fixed and to rightly reflect their accomplishments,” Kiefer said.
The two biological males who were permitted to compete against women in Connecticut were Andraya Yearwood and Terry Miller. Both began their pursuit of women’s titles and records in 2017-18, The Post Millennial reported.
