One of the cases has to do with two male teens – a sophomore and soccer player named Parker Tirrell, and a freshman who goes by Iris and wants to participate on the track team this winter.
"Iris didn't play any sports in middle school or anything like that," notes NewBostonPost reporter Tom Joyce. "So, you have essentially a non-athlete join onto this lawsuit challenging the ban on male athletes in girls' sports in New Hampshire that [Governor] Chris Sununu (R) had signed into law over the summer."
A federal judge ruled earlier this year that the teens could try out for and play on the girls' school sports teams. The order only applies to those two boys for now as they are looking to overturn the Fairness in Women's Sports Act.
The other case involves two parents who sued the school district in Bow after they were barred from school grounds for wearing pink "XX" wristbands to their daughters' high school soccer game against Tirrell's team in September.
XX represents the female chromosomes.
"Half the states in the country have laws banning males from girls' sports, so I don't see why New Hampshire shouldn't be allowed to do the same thing, especially when the voters have spoken loud and clear that they want Republican policies in their state," Joyce comments. "This is a very popular Republican policy that about 70% of the country supports, according to a June 2023 Gallup poll."
Lawyers for the two teen boys hope the matter goes to trial and is resolved before the start of the next school year in September.
U.S. District Court Judge Steven McAuliffe, who is hearing the parents' case, has suggested the message the parents sent may matter more than their intentions. In a hearing last week, McAuliffe noted that while both plaintiffs said they had no problem with transgender people outside the issue of sports, they repeatedly referred to Tirrell as a boy.
"You seem to go out of your way to suggest there's no such thing as a trans girl," the judge said.
