Female track athletes are “optimistic” that a judge will move their court case forward that challenges a policy in Connecticut allowing transgender female athletes to compete in women’s sports.
Hearings began today for the court case Soule v. Connecticut Association of Schools, involving female athletes Selina Soule, Alanna Smith, Chelsea Mitchell, and Ashley Nicoletti, represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, and Connecticut school districts.
Andraya Yearwood and Terry Miller, two transgender student-athletes who have since graduated from Connecticut high schools, are also listed as defendants, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut.
During today’s hearing, attorneys from both sides argued over whether the case, which was dismissed last year, had substantial reasoning to move forward.
Alliance Defending Freedom attorney Christiana Holcomb said in an interview with the Washington Examiner after the hearing that while the two sides differ on their opinion of the case, both the female and transgender athletes’ attorneys agree that athletes’ records matter.
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“We are on an appeal because the court dismissed the girls’ case, and I think he got it wrong,” Holcomb said. “He said the girls’ records and lost opportunities and lost state championship titles didn’t matter. And the questions asked by the Court of Appeals today, I think that indicates that they’re really wrestling with that and recognize that those records do matter to athletes.”
District Court Judge Robert Chatigny dismissed the case, which began in February 2020, on April 25, 2021, on the grounds that the transgender athletes had already graduated.
The athletes moved to appeal the decision shortly after the judge’s ruling. In May, they filed a notice to appeal to the Second Circuit Appellate Court, asking the court to allow the case to move forward.
ACLU Connecticut attorneys said in a press release that the four female athletes’ appeal is “filled with hypotheticals about a dystopia where cisgender girls disappear from the podium,” ACLU staff attorney Joshua Block said. “But the court must rely on facts.”
Block added that the female athletes “repeatedly outperformed Andraya and Terry” and won a collection of first-place trophies.
“There is enough room on the victory podium for transgender girls, too,” he said.
However, Soule said what she and her teammates underwent all four years of high school athletics was “extremely unfair” and they had consistently lost several titles and opportunities to Yearwood and Miller.
“I raced against these athletes over a dozen times,” she said. “I was never close a single race. I was bumped out of qualifying spots. … I sat on the sidelines when I was eliminated from events, knowing I should have been there.”
Soule said she’s received several messages on social media from people about the case, but she ignores them because she knows “they could never say it to my face.”
Mitchell, Soule, and Smith all said they are focusing on their family, friends, and track as ways to take care of themselves as the case is deliberated. Smith runs the 100, 200, and 400-meter races, and both Mitchell and Soule run the 100 and 200-meter races and do long jump.
Soule added that they all believe everyone should have an equal opportunity to participate in sports. However, she said, they also believe Title IX and the female category of sports should be respected and protected.
“I just want to make sure that no other little girl has to experience the pain and heartbreak that I went through,” Soule said.
However, ACLU Connecticut attorney Elana Bildner said Title IX protects transgender girls in sports and that Connecticut’s policy is “consistent with federal law.”
“For years now, Andraya and Terry have carried more on their shoulders, as two Black trans youth, than most adults face in a lifetime,” Bildner said. “We hope the court will uphold the lower court’s decision so our clients may move forward with their lives, and so all transgender students can rest assured that their rights, humanity, and ability to be fully part of their school communities is not up for debate.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to the Connecticut Association of Schools and Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference for comment.
