Four female athletes challenge Connecticut policy in fight to save women’s sports

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 29, 2022 / 18:00 pm

Four female student athletes are at the center of an ongoing case to protect girls’ sports, which advanced to the 2nd District Court of Appeals this week. 

The case, Soule v. Connecticut Association of Schools, has been at the heart of the debate over whether or not male athletes who identify as female can compete on girls-only sports teams.

The girls are being represented in the case by attorneys from the conservative legal nonprofit Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).

“These young women, meet after meet, saw that in Connecticut those who were born female didn’t have an equal chance,” ADF Senior Counsel Roger Brooks argued before the court Thursday morning.

“Perhaps more problematic, their little sisters standing on the sidelines saw [that] those born female like them didn’t have an equal chance to win. That is contrary to the very heart of Title IX,” he concluded.

Title IX, adopted in 1972, protects Americans from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal funding.

Four female track athletes take a stand

ADF is representing four female track athletes — Selina Soule, Alanna Smith, Chelsea Mitchell, and Ashley Nicoletti — in a legal challenge to Connecticut’s policy that allows transgender athletes to compete on high school girls’ sports teams.

The complaint argues that Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference’s (CIAC) policy allowing males to compete on female sports teams violates Title IX and has deprived female athletes of the equal opportunity to compete, obtain medals, and advance to championships.

All of the girls were either denied medals and advancement opportunities as a result of male athletes dominating the playing field — something that has had a lifelong impact.

Mitchell, for example, would have won Connecticut’s 2019 state championship in the women’s 55-meter indoor track competition but was denied the gold medal when two male athletes identifying as transgender — Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood — took first and second place. 

Mitchell told CNA that she lost four state championships and other advancements in all New England awards as a result. 

“I don’t know exactly how that would have impacted my college recruitment,” she said. 

“Especially at the time, those state championships meant a lot to me. To train and work that hard to be in the contention for a state championship and lose because of biological males in my race was really disheartening and frustrating.”

The ACLU of Connecticut, which represented CIAC and its member schools in the suit — along with Miller and Yearwood who joined as defendants — did not respond to CNA’s request for comment. 

A CIAC spokesman told CNA the conference had no comment.

Because of the CIAC policy, Smith walked away from a regional New England meet with a bronze medal instead of a silver because a male took first place. 

“All the other female athletes weren’t able to advance to the state open or the New England Regional meet because the spots were taken by biological males,” Smith said. 

Soule lost the opportunity to qualify for the meet and the 55-meter dash, which she had previously qualified for, for the same reason.

“I was forced to watch my own event from the sidelines,” Soule added.

ADF senior counsel Christiana Kiefer said that on average, males have a 10%–15% higher performance average than females.

“Why should girls even try?” Kiefer asked. “The whole reason we even have women’s sports as a separate category is because we recognize those real physical differences.”

Uphill battle ahead for future of girls’ sports 

The girls’ case was dismissed earlier last year by a Connecticut district court judge when it was submitted. ADF then appealed the ruling to the 2nd Court of Appeals.

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“What the district court did in dismissing the girls’ lawsuit is essentially [say] that their inaccurate records, their lost opportunities didn’t matter. And that’s simply wrong under Title IX,” Kiefer said. 

“Records do matter to athletes,” Kiefer added. “Chelsea Mitchell lost four state championship titles. She was four times the fastest girl in a state championship race, and yet the record books don’t reflect her accomplishments. That’s something that needs to be fixed.”

The complaint requests that CIAC grant the plaintiffs monetary relief, update the district’s records to remove males from the scores, and strike down the policy. 

Kiefer said that ADF was “optimistic” the court of appeals will rule in their favor because the Title IX violation was so “clear.”

She added that they hope it won’t be necessary to bring the case to the Supreme Court, “but if necessary, we will take this case as far as it needs to go.”

Biden’s Title IX policy muddies the waters

In June, President Biden reinterpreted Title IX’s federal ban on sex discrimination to include “sexual orientation or gender identity,” paving the way to require single-sex sports teams to allow transgender athletes.

Title IX was originally crafted in part to ensure fairness in women’s sports. 

Kiefer said that Biden’s recent proposed revisions to Title IX do not bode well for the future of protecting female-only sports.

“I think it could very well spell the beginning of the end of female sports,” Kiefer said.

Kiefer said that ADF believes Biden’s redefinition of sex in federal law is “unlawful.” 

“If the administration goes through with this, we will see ramifications and difficult situations for female athletes, like we saw in the state of Connecticut, that will be replicated across the entire United States,” she said. 

ADF was one of many other dissenting groups that submitted a public comment opposing the administration’s proposed regulations. 

“I hope that this won’t impact their future,” Soule said, speaking about younger female athletes who come after her, “and that girls will have a fair opportunity to not only participate but to succeed in the sports that they love.”

Smith added that she hoped “more female athletes will start to stand up so that a change can be made quicker.”

“The more people that speak up on this issue, the faster hopefully it’ll get rectified,” Mitchell agreed. 

“In the meantime, just keep working hard on your score. That’s all we really can do until this issue is fixed.”