The teenage girls who challenged New Hampshire’s ban on transgender athletes have dropped their lawsuit against the state in part because the law no longer applies to them, their attorney said Thursday. But the legal fight may not be over. Chris Erchull of GLAD Law said he’s hearing from families of transgender students who may want to renew the challenge.
“I'm weighing strategic options right now,” he said.
When Iris Turmelle and Parker Tirrell filed their lawsuit last year, Turmelle was on Pembroke Academy’s girls’ tennis and track teams and Tirrelle played on the girls soccer team at Plymouth Regional High School. Turmelle has since moved out of state and Tirrell has left her team.
Erchull said dropping the case was a difficult decision but the right one for the girls and their families.
Tirrell told her legal team that soccer, once the biggest joy in her life, was no longer fun because of the harassment she encountered at games. Adults on the sidelines opposed her inclusion on the soccer team and players on the opposing team refused to high-five her after matches. One opposing team refused to play against the team.
Erchull said that became too much for Tirrell to carry.
“That’s really heartbreaking to think about how that compounds on the shoulders of a teenage girl,” Erchull said. “Being a part of litigation like this is never easy. I'm very proud of these two young women for fighting and for doing so with grace for as long as they did.”
Erchull said he believed the girls’ legal challenge had an impact.
“We have an obligation to persuade courts, to persuade legislators, but also to persuade the public more generally,” he said. “These two have been in the public eye now for two years and they've time and again told their stories and those stories are so human and so relatable. I believe sincerely that that has helped move the needle, at least in New Hampshire.”
New Hampshire's law bars transgender girls from playing on middle and high school girls teams.
Last month’s U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding state bans on transgender athletes would make it harder to litigate a new lawsuit against New Hampshire's law, Erchull said, but not impossible. Tirrell and Turmelle’s lawsuit included different legal arguments that were not resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court, he said.
