On Aug. 27, 2024, attorney Chris Erchull, center, speaks in front of the U.S. District Court of New Hampshire after a federal judge moved to extend an order allowing Parker Tirrell, right, a transgender teenager, to continue playing on her high school girls soccer team. (Photo by Ethan DeWitt/New Hampshire Bulletin)
Two New Hampshire teenagers who have sued the state over a law excluding transgender girls from girls’ sports are now taking on the Trump administration.
Parker Tirrell and Iris Turmelle filed a federal lawsuit in August 2024 to overturn a state law that bars transgender girls who were biologically male at birth from participating in middle school and high school girls sports teams.
On Wednesday, lawyers for the teenagers requested to expand that lawsuit to also target President Donald Trump’s Feb. 5 executive order to block federal funding to schools that allow transgender girls on girls’ sports teams. The judge in the case, Landya McCafferty, accepted that request Wednesday.
The new lawsuit lists Trump and top federal officials as defendants in addition to New Hampshire Department of Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut and the New Hampshire State Board of Education.
The move, made via a “motion for leave to file” in the U.S. District Court of New Hampshire in Concord, is the first time Trump’s executive order has been challenged in federal court. And it comes after McCafferty already ruled to temporarily block the state law from taking effect against Tirrell and Turmelle while the case is heard.
Lawyers for the teenagers, who include GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders and the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire, argue the president’s executive order violates equal protection rights for transgender students in the Fifth Amendment as well as the federal Title IX law.
They are also asking the court to block a Jan. 20 order by Trump titled “Defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government” that instructed federal departments to remove references to gender identity in their policies and redefined the Title IX gender anti-discrimination protections to only apply to people’s sex at birth.
Tirrell, a Plymouth High School 10th grader, is a member of the girls’ soccer team, while Turmelle, a ninth grader at Pembroke Academy, is interested in joining that school’s girls’ tennis and track teams, according to an updated filing.
McCafferty’s temporary injunction in August blocked the state law, House Bill 1205, from taking effect against Turmelle and Tirrell but no others in the state. That allowed the two to continue participating, but means middle and high schools must continue applying the law to other students.
Still, lawyers for the two students argue Trump’s executive orders are “in direct contradiction” to the New Hampshire federal court’s order and could also result in their exclusion from sports.
“The sweeping National Sports Ban intentionally discriminates against transgender people, and is part of a systematic effort by Defendant President Trump and his administration to harm transgender people and prevent them from functioning in society,” the amended lawsuit reads.
In defending the law, the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office has said it is not unconstitutional, that it is intended to protect women’s rights by blocking transgender girls who might have physical advantages, and that Tirrell’s and Turmelle’s exclusion from girls’ sports would not result in “irreparable harm.”
While McCafferty has accepted the plaintiff’s motion to amend their lawsuit, plaintiffs are still waiting for her to issue summonses to the new defendants, Chris Erchull, a staff attorney for GLAD, said Wednesday – a process that could take days. The defendants will also need to be served for the lawsuit to proceed, he said.