As young athletes gear up for another fall sports season, some local school districts are still trying to figure out how to enforce a new state law barring trans girls from playing on girls sports teams.
The law, which took effect on Aug. 19, requires middle school and high school sports teams to be separated “based on the biological sex at birth of intended participants” into one of three categories: males, men, or boys; females, women, or girls; or coed or mixed.
It requires a birth certificate or similar documentation as evidence of athletes’ sex assigned at birth.
Lawyers from GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD) and American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire challenged the law in federal court earlier this month, claiming that the law is unconstitutional and violates Title IX gender protections. This week, a federal judge temporarily blocked the law, letting one of the plaintiffs — a high school student in Plymouth — participate in her school’s soccer team until the court meets again.
But as the case works its way through the courts, school districts are left wondering what the law means for their students — and how ongoing legal challenges may alter its scope.
In addition to defending New Hampshire’s law amid the recent federal lawsuit, New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella has also waded into another U.S. Supreme Court case involving a similar West Virginia law, asking the justices to uphold that policy.
The New Hampshire law stipulates that “[the] state board of education, each local school board, and each governing body of a public charter school shall adopt and enforce policies to ensure compliance with this subdivision in the public schools governed by each respective entity.”
In practice, that has meant school districts across the state are working with their lawyers to figure out how this will impact their athletic programs, even as the season is already starting.
In a letter sent Aug. 20, New Hampshire Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut told school leaders that they understand the law is being challenged in court and they will share more information as the situation develops. The department did not answer questions from NHPR about if the state board of agenda plans to discuss the law at future meetings.
Officials in Manchester, the state's largest school district, are working with its legal team to figure out its next steps, according to a spokesperson.
In Keene, school officials are watching the court case closely before they craft a final policy.
“Until the court challenges work through, we don't have a full picture of what it is that we're working with and what we'll have to try and enforce ultimately,” said school board chair George Downing.
Last year, Portsmouth’s school board passed a measure allowing students to play on the sports team that best aligned with their gender identity. But now, they are trying to figure out how to implement contradictory statutes at different levels of government.
“What we don't know is which body actually will decide what the policy would be,” said school board chair Nancy Novelline Clayburg. “So we just have to wait and see how it all plays out.”
In the meantime, officials in Dover are trying to create policies designed to make trans students feel less targeted.
“We made the decision across the district to just ask for birth certificates for all sports, not just for the girls, so that we're not isolating by gender,” said Robin Trefethen, Dover’s school board chair.
Concord is trying to figure out how to balance federal regulations and the new law, but school board chair Pamela Walsh said the district has long aimed to make an inclusive environment, “before it became controversial.”
“We have worked to try and make sure that all of our students feel safe,” she said.
