By Dara Kam, The News Service of Florida
TALLAHASSEE — A 13-year-old Broward County soccer player and her parents are challenging a a new state law that bans transgender female athletes from participating on girls’ and women’s sports teams, arguing that it is unconstitutional and “ignores basic medical science” about trans students.
The measure (SB 1028), one of the most hotly debated issues of the 2021 legislative session, will make female athletes’ eligibility for sports teams contingent on their “biological sex” on birth certificates issued “at or near the time of the student’s birth.”
The legislation, signed June 1 by Gov. Ron DeSantis, is similar to proposals considered or passed this year by numerous other Republican-controlled legislatures across the country.
In a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in the Southern District of Florida, lawyers for the student identified by the initials D.N. and her parents alleged that the new law will force her to abandon “the sports that mean so much to her” because she will not be able to participate on high-school girls’ athletic teams.
The ban is unconstitutionally discriminatory and violates a federal law, known as Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools or education programs that receive federal money, the lawsuit said.
D.N. would be “sidelined and ostracized solely because of her gender identity” if she isn’t allowed to play on girls’ and women’s teams, lawyers with the Human Rights Campaign, a national non-profit organization that advocates for LGBTQ rights, and the Arnold & Porter firm wrote in the 20-page complaint.
According to the lawsuit, D.N. has identified as a girl since she was a young child and has participated in girls’ sports for many years.
“D.N. dreams of being on high school sports teams, whether it is in soccer or volleyball. She cannot imagine life without these experiences and feels it would be cruel to take this opportunity away from her. D.N. has lived as a girl for years now and this is her true identity,” her lawyers argued.
Republican lawmakers tucked the transgender athlete ban into a wide-ranging education bill in an eleventh-hour move during the legislative session that ended April 30. DeSantis and other supporters maintain that the ban is necessary to prevent male athletes from having a competitive edge over female competitors.
“I can tell you this, in Florida, girls are going to play girls’ sports, and boys are going to play boys’ sports. That’s what we’re doing, and we’re going to make sure that that’s the reality,” DeSantis said as he signed the bill on the first day of June’s Pride Month.
But critics contend that the ban will further isolate transgender students who are already at risk of being bullied or worse.
D.N., referred to as “Daisy” in a news release issued Wednesday by the Human Rights Campaign, takes estrogen and her testosterone levels have been suppressed for more than a year, her attorneys said in the lawsuit.
“D.N.’s identity and development are that of a girl and she is on estrogen. She has no competitive advantage merely because of the sex assigned to her at birth. Now and when she enters high school, from an athletic perspective, she is similarly situated to her cisgender female teammates,” they argued.
The state law runs afoul of Title IX and federal regulations, which do not permit “a state or locality to discriminate based solely on a person’s gender assigned to them at birth,” the plaintiffs’ lawyers said. The law also violates transgender female athletes’ equal protection rights, the lawyers argued, because “it is neither tailored to the achievement of a compelling governmental interest nor substantially related to an important state interest.”
“Florida’s purported state interest in athletic ‘fairness’ ignores basic medical science about transgender students, as well as the impact of hormone suppressants,” the plaintiffs’ attorneys wrote.
Under the new law, other students who contend they are “deprived of an athletic opportunity” or suffer “direct or indirect harm” because of violations of the trangender ban will be able to sue schools or colleges.
Transgender girls “must now face the risk their participation will be subject to legal challenge,” D.N.’s lawyers wrote. “Any such suit would, of necessity, require production of private medical and academic records, which in any other context would not be available to other students or those students’ families, let alone the general public.”
The law would subject D.N. “to an invasion of privacy” if she had to participate on boys’ teams and use boys’ locker rooms, although she is receiving estrogen and will continue to develop as a girl through puberty, her lawyers said.
“Her social network and support system are the girls on her team, and she would be ostracized and bullied if she were to be forced to be on a boys’ team. Compelling her to be on the boys’ team also would force her to disclose her transgender status to the entire school,” they argued.
The ban violates transgender female athletes’ constitutional right to privacy, wrote D.N.’s lawyers, who are asking a judge for an injunction against the law.
The Human Rights Campaign also plans to challenge similar laws in Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee, according to Wednesday’s news release.
“Given the unprecedented onslaught of state legislative attacks, we have a responsibility to utilize every tool in our belt to safeguard the LGBTQ community, including suing the states that infringe upon our civil rights,” said Alphonso David, the organization’s president. “On the first day of Pride Month, a moment of celebration, Gov. DeSantis signed a bill into law attacking transgender children—now, on the last day of Pride, we are sending a message to him, and all anti-equality officials, that you cannot target our community without retribution.”
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This is offensive to girls and women.
The liberals cry and cry for women’s rights and yet they want men to dominate a women’s sport and allowing pedophilia to occur. No matter how they put it, it’s pedophilia.
If you are reading this comment, please speak up to your local community. We can’t affect the big techs and big government, but we sure as heck can do something within our community. If we don’t stand up for our kids, no one else will. The future is literally in our hands. This is not a textbook or a bad dream, if we don’t stand up, this will forever be our reality.
Don’t listen to liberals, America is an awesome country. WE stand for freedom, community, free speech, and GOD, I LOVE AMERICA and I hope you do too
Are the Boy Scouts still happening since they started allowing Girls in? I haven’t see anything about them lately.
I’m unsure that even John Morgan would accept a B.S. case like this. Well, on second thought, that is his specialty and they never go to trial anyway. So, John how did a real law firm beat you to it?
Equal treatment under the law is what is expected. Meaning boys cannot play on girls’ team, girls cannot play on boys’ teams, transgender boys cannot play on boys’ teams, transgender girls cannot play on girls’ teams. That covers everyone. So if the law is applied the same, regardless of if you are “original” or “new” gendered, then there is no discrimination case.
Now this concept failed before with same sex marriage. Men were not allowed to marry men and women were not allowed to marry women. That was regardless of their sexual orientation. Meaning if you were heterosexual or homosexual that was not a legal matter as both sexual orientations were being treated equally (both prohibited) under the law. That you did, or did not want to, marry someone of the same gender, was not material to the equal treatment clause.
The lawsuit claims the Florida law “ignores basic medical science”, that’s going to be an uphill battle given that for thousands of years of human history there have been two genders. It’s funny how leftist claim to follow the science and also claim there are 47 possible genders.
You hit the nail on the head POC. They pushed and pushed to get the word “marriage” in an attempt to normalize an otherwise unnatural and unhealthy lifestyle choice. Now they move on to the next abomination. I’ve been saying it for a while now, the next shoe to drop in the Bacon, Lettuce, and Tomato Group freak show is pedophilia. Get ready for the LGBTQ “P” parade of reprobates demanding their right to sexualize children… because after all, it’s not their fault, they were “born” that way.
And I agree with Mike 100%… The parents should be arrested and charged with child abuse and/or endangerment.
The ultimate goal and outcome of the alphabet mafia’s agenda is legalized pedophilia. It’s never been about Love. Pederasty has already been legalized in Commiefornia, surprise surprise. This has always been their goal because they need new recruits for their satanic cause as they are incapable of breeding enough replacements. You are already seeing this child abuse occurring at drag shows and “pride” parades throughout the nation, where evil “parents” are allowing their kids to attend and participate.
“Florida’s purported state interest in athletic ‘fairness’ ignores basic medical science about transgender students, as well as the impact of hormone suppressants,” the plaintiffs’ attorneys wrote. Basic medical science assigns XX or XY chromosomes to the unborn child. This DNA SCIENCE, assigns undeniable gender of male or female to the infant. To say otherwise means you are nothing but a flat earther, mentally ill, child abusing, science denying psychopath.
The article, of course, was entirely one sided and gave only the child abusers’ psychopathic take on immutable characteristics of males and females. Pride is one of the seven deadly sins and we just finished “celebrating” an entire month of this deadly sin. The Father of Lies is laughing at us.
There is so such thing as a “transgender” anything. It’s a made up word designed to distract from the scientific reality of mental illness, and to help cover the psychological disorder known as Gender Dysphoria. In the past, they were simply referred to as cross-dressers… but everyone knew they were psychologically imbalanced and in need of treatment.
“Oh look daddy, I scored more goals than then girls did. Aren’t you proud of me now?”
… “sure I am son… now give your panties to your mom, she’s doing laundry today”
Two wrongs don’t make a right, and two men can’t make a baby. On THIS… the “Science is Settled”.
He was not assigned a gender at birth. He was created a male and has the anatomy of a male.
A male in the locker room is a violation of the girls’ privacy. They are female athletes, not strippers. Additionally, they should not be exposed to a male undressing in their locker room. That used to be considered indecent exposure.
It’s time for a reality check.
The parents should be arrested for child abuse. If the 13 year old is walking around with male equipment, the he is not a she. Not yet anyway, has he lost all sense of direction yet? Does he go “buying” instead of shopping? I’ll bet he hasn’t developed an unquenchable thirst for Chardonnay either.
Until all those things happen he remains a misguided adolescent male…
Well if her parents are looking for their .15 minutes of fame and maybe an opportunity to con gullible leftists out of some cash money via a GoFundMe scam like Rebecca Jones did…then…just plan on filing in the district that will eventually work its way up to Judge Hinkle.
You wont win in the process beyond Hinkle but who cares? By that time you got your sweet sweet virtue signaling fame, maybe a CNN interview or two, and most of all buckets of sweet sweet cash via your GoFundMe scam!
Oh you say you are doing it for the Kid? Sounds like you parents have already “done it to the Kid” and messed your kids life enough already. Shame on you.