Indiana: Trans girls can play softball again

Another legal victory over the Republican prosecution of transgender children in the states of the USA: A ten-year-old transgender girl from Indiana is allowed back on her softball team. It had to leave because the state’s Republican-led government had banned trans girls from participating in girls’ sports. Softball is similar to baseball, but is played on smaller fields, among other things.

At the beginning of the year, Indiana became the eighth US state with a corresponding regulation, which refers transgender children and adolescents to their gender registered at birth when playing sports. Therefore, the girl’s school informed her mother that it was no longer possible for the child to play on the softball team in the new school year starting in August. The child’s legal name has already been changed. The girl is only known by her real name among her classmates.

Violation of Title IX

The federal court’s decision is based on the anti-discrimination clause “Title IX”, which prohibits sex discrimination in schools. “Singling out transgender women is clearly discrimination on the basis of sex, regardless of the argument used to justify that singling out,” federal judge Jane Magnus-Stinson wrote in her Verdict.

In the case, not only did the state of Indiana object to the application of the ten-year-old girl’s mother, but also five adult athletes who apparently felt threatened by the integration of trans girls into school sports. However, the decision in favor of the girl is initially only provisional and is valid as long as the matter is being further negotiated. However, with the present interpretation that the girl’s exclusion may violate “Title IX”, the court has sent a clear signal of its legal opinion.

Queer organization supports lawsuits

Welcoming the decision, Ken Falk of the Indiana affiliate of the American Civil Liberties Union said: “Using misinformation about biology and gender to exclude transgender girls from school sports constitutes the same form of gender discrimination long ago dubbed ‘Title IX’ is prohibited by a law that protects all students, including transgender ones, on the basis of their gender.” We are pleased that the judge recognized this. If other students are being denied their right to join an athletic team because of their transgender status, they should contact the ACLU immediately.

Time and again, courts stop the laws passed against transgender children, adolescents and their families in the US culture war raging over the status of transgender citizens. In Texas, for example, Republican Greg Abbott’s government wanted to prosecute the families of trans children for “child abuse.” Most recently, a court stopped this practice again after initial legal back and forth (queer.de reported). (jk)