Transgender athlete debate rolls on six months after government order

ON A GRAY June afternoon in Oakland, Maine, Soren Stark-Chessa dug her footwear into the rubber observe on the beginning line for the 1600-meter race within the state Class C out of doors observe and subject championships. Pellets of rain fell from the thick, heavy clouds.

She took a deep breath and tried to calm her coronary heart fee, understanding no matter she did over the subsequent 10 minutes may spark nationwide debate. “Give your all,” the 17-year-old transgender woman thought to herself. “Strive to not depart something that you would be able to remorse.”

On the opposite facet of a black chain-link fence, three spectators wore vivid pink T-shirts emblazoned with daring, black letters: “XX ≠ XY” and “information over emotions.”

“Boys are girls and boys are women,” mentioned one, Clarissa Porter. “I consider that we have to defend our women’ and ladies’s sports activities.”

Stark-Chessa was competing regardless of an government order President Donald Trump signed Feb. 5 that authorizes federal businesses to penalize colleges that enable transgender women and girls to compete in women’ and ladies’s sports activities, together with being made ineligible for federal funding.

Officers in a handful of states, together with Maine, have mentioned they won’t comply. Six months after Trump’s government order, debate round transgender athletes continues to roil nationwide. From coast to coast, the motion set off a flurry of lawsuits, countersuits, sports activities group coverage modifications, U.S. Division of Schooling investigations and state laws. The U.S. Supreme Courtroom will take up the difficulty in its subsequent time period, which begins in October.

Opponents of transgender participation level to equity and security and the physiological benefits conferred by testosterone. “Girls and boys are completely different from age 0 to no matter as a result of boys are infused with testosterone that’s at all times there,” mentioned Idaho Rep. Barbara Ehardt, who authored the first bill limiting transgender athletes that turned regulation.

Advocates for transgender inclusion argue that benefits gained from testosterone-driven puberty could be mitigated by testosterone suppression, and in youth sports activities, gender id ought to decide eligibility.

“Chromosomes are usually not a proxy for sports activities efficiency and they also do not kind a foundation for excluding college students,” mentioned Chris Erchull, an lawyer for GLBTQ Authorized Advocates & Defenders.

In a nationwide April poll by NBC Information, 75 p.c of respondents mentioned they disagreed with the concept transgender ladies ought to be eligible to compete in ladies’s sports activities.

Amid that widespread opposition and an internet of adjusting legal guidelines and insurance policies, transgender athletes, from the elite ranges right down to rec leagues, are looking for methods to compete in a sports activities panorama that has shrunk round them, understanding every competitors might be their final.

“I really feel like we’re successful,” mentioned Ehardt, whose Idaho regulation is one in all two that will likely be challenged earlier than the Supreme Courtroom. “However I do not really feel like we have gained but.”

SADIE SCHREINER HAD deliberate to race at Penn State on Feb. 21 together with her teammates from the Rochester Institute of Expertise at a Large Ten observe with among the nation’s main collegiate observe and subject expertise.

As a substitute, she drove six hours to Toronto, Canada, and ran alone, with out coaches or teammates, at a meet run by a regional operating membership, filled with principally grade-school girls and boys. She made some extent to carry a plain bag — stuffed together with her gear, some jerky and crackers — and never the bag with the RIT emblem, in order to not run afoul of any NCAA guidelines.

Faculty sports activities has been one of many major battlegrounds for transgender athlete participation, largely due to the doubtless profitable stakes: scholarships, sponsorship cash {and professional} or Olympic careers. Schools additionally depend on federal funding, which topics them to regulation.

The NCAA adopted a coverage in 2010 that allowed transgender ladies to be eligible for the ladies’s class. That got here below scrutiny after Lia Thomas joined the College of Pennsylvania ladies’s swim group through the 2021-22 season, the place she turned the first transgender athlete to win a Division I nationwide championship.

Led by former Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, a bunch of girls athletes sued the NCAA in 2024, alleging that the NCAA had violated their Title IX rights by permitting transgender athletes similar to Thomas to compete.

On Feb. 6, the day after Trump signed the chief order, the NCAA changed its policy and made ladies’s sports activities open solely to student-athletes assigned feminine at beginning.

Schreiner was decided to discover a race someplace — wherever — that may let her run. First, she tried to register for NCAA races as “unattached,” a designation that enables athletes to compete as people representing themselves however not their schools. RIT officers made calls to see if any meets would take her, and so they all refused.

Schreiner determined to attempt on her personal, and she or he efficiently registered to compete unattached at a meet on Feb. 15 at Boston College. However lower than 24 hours earlier than the meet, Schreiner obtained an e mail from BU’s observe and subject division: “Athletes who had been assigned male at beginning can’t compete in ladies’s sporting occasions.”

“The Government Order has put us in a troublesome place during which we’re obligated to conform even when it doesn’t align with our earlier practices,” the e-mail mentioned. “We perceive that is distressing and abrupt information to listen to, particularly in a time of a lot uncertainty.”

Schreiner mentioned she contacted the NCAA round that point to ask whether or not she may compete unattached however did not hear again. ESPN additionally reached out to an NCAA spokesperson, who offered basic data on the unattached bylaw however didn’t reply whether or not it will apply to transgender athletes.

Schreiner then competed within the 400- and 200-meter dashes within the ladies’s open class on the regional operating membership meet in Canada, the place she gained each occasions: 57.81 within the 400 and 25.05 within the 200. The successful occasions on the 2025 NCAA ladies’s indoor championships in these occasions had been 49.24 and 22.30 respectively.

“It is significantly better than sitting alone at my house,” she mentioned. “However driving alone as much as Canada to compete at a meet that is nowhere close to the caliber of what I ought to be racing at this weekend is just not precisely motivating.”

She then ran at two USA Observe & Discipline occasions in March, however the home windows of alternative had been closing. USATF issued a brand new coverage requiring transgender athletes to transition earlier than age 12. Schreiner transitioned in highschool.

On Might 3, Schreiner was registered to race within the open class on the Larry Ellis Invitational, hosted by Princeton College. However she was faraway from the record of contributors shortly earlier than the 200-meter and instructed by faculty officers that she couldn’t race, in line with a lawsuit she filed in opposition to the college, its athletic director and race organizers in a New Jersey courtroom on July 15, alleging discrimination and infliction of emotional misery.

“Merely said, when Princeton College, unlawfully aided and abetted by the opposite individually named defendants, denied her proper to run … they broke the regulation controlling assured protections of the rights of transgender ladies,” the lawsuit says.

The defendants have but to file a response within the case. A spokesperson for Princeton instructed ESPN in a press release: “Princeton follows NCAA guidelines and insurance policies for figuring out who’s eligible for varsity athletic occasions, which is what we did on this case.”

In current social media posts, Schreiner has acknowledged that her racing profession is probably going completed.

A SUNDAY AFTERNOON USA Fencing competitors on the College of Maryland this March was alleged to be a low-key, low-stakes affair. Principally “for funsies,” as transgender fencer Pink Sullivan noticed it.

As a substitute, it turned each Sullivan and her would-be opponent, Stephanie Turner, into nationwide figures. Sullivan, who had already stopped competing for Wagner Faculty due to the chief order, continued to enter USA Fencing occasions. Turner was there to compete for her College of Maryland membership group.

However when Turner was paired in opposition to Sullivan, she knelt and refused to combat. Turner was disqualified, and video of the incident went viral, with each fencers saying they felt thrust into the nationwide media and afraid.

Sullivan mentioned she made her social media accounts non-public, scrubbed her web profile and known as regulation enforcement in concern she could be a goal of swatting, or making faux 911 calls to her house to attract police there.

Turner later instructed a congressional committee that she determined to take a break from fencing after her protest made her a “goal for harassment and violence.”

“The USFA has fostered an atmosphere the place I’m unwelcome in my very own class,” she mentioned at a Might 7 listening to, including that the group’s management promotes a tradition that “consists of public humiliation, doxxing, social ostracism, dismissal, and even threats.”

“Every time a person competes within the ladies’s class, with USAF’s help, it removes truthful sport and takes alternatives from ladies,” she mentioned. Turner instructed the committee USAF has greater than 200 transgender fencers. The group instructed ESPN that 38 athletes accomplished its transgender participation certification and competed within the ladies’s division this season.

ESPN reached out to Turner instantly and thru her fencing membership and didn’t obtain a response.

USA Fencing board of administrators Chair Damien Lehfeldt instructed the committee that fencing has a protracted historical past of mixed-gender competitions between women and men. In competitions between cisgender ladies and transgender ladies, cisgender ladies prevailed in 55% of the bouts for which he has knowledge, he mentioned.

On July 21, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee announced a new policy that bars transgender ladies from ladies’s sports activities. Consequently, USA Fencing mentioned it will require transgender ladies to compete within the males’s class in any respect sanctioned competitions.

The USOPC’s coverage change impacts all 54 nationwide governing our bodies, which oversee occasions in Olympic sports activities from youth to masters ranges. It is unclear if the USOPC rule will affect non-elite athletes.

U.S. Determine Skating spokesperson Isabelle McLemore instructed ESPN the group had already been reviewing its transgender athlete coverage earlier than the USOPC ruling. “We, like different NGBs, oversee the game in any respect ranges, so we’re speaking grassroots to the Olympic Video games,” she mentioned. “How will we apply a coverage to all? How is it constructed to reply and oversee all of these completely different areas?”

The U.S. Tennis Affiliation, which mentioned in a 2025 report that it has practically 26 million contributors throughout the nation, instructed ESPN in a press release: “The tennis ecosystem and the event construction within the U.S., each leisure and aggressive, contain many organizations and require administration and administration throughout many various native, state, nationwide and world entities. We’re doing our due diligence to make sure we adjust to all relevant legal guidelines, Government Orders, and USOPC necessities whereas persevering with to make tennis accessible and accessible to all who need to take part.”

Congress gained vital oversight powers over the USOPC and the nationwide governing our bodies in 2020 within the wake of the Larry Nassar intercourse abuse instances. Congress can dissolve the USOPC’s board of administrators and decertify nationwide governing our bodies that it deems haven’t fulfilled their duties, together with defending athlete security.

In response to the USOPC ban, Turner instructed Fox Information that she supported necessary intercourse screening to confirm an athlete’s gender. “You possibly can’t depend on documentation anymore,” Turner mentioned. “You possibly can’t depend on driver’s license(s), you’ll be able to’t depend on beginning certificates as a result of these can all be edited.”

The usage of cheek swabs to find out chromosomes is gaining momentum in sports activities. World Athletics announced last week that it’ll require everybody competing within the ladies’s class to cross a one-time gene take a look at. The rule takes impact for its world championships in September.

Final week, the U.S. Division of Schooling introduced that Wagner Faculty had agreed to adjust to the administration’s restrictions on transgender athletes after a federal investigation.

Sullivan mentioned she is transferring this fall to the College of Connecticut, which affords membership fencing. UConn spokesperson Stephanie Reitz wrote in an e mail that insurance policies for membership sports activities are decided by the governing our bodies of every sport, which suggests Sullivan wouldn’t be allowed to compete on the ladies’s group.

Sullivan mentioned competing on the lads’s group is just not an choice.

“Nobody transitions to do one thing that does not align with how they really feel,” she mentioned. “I do not really feel like a person. I am not a person.”

She mentioned she’s thought of working as a referee or as an assistant coach at her membership to remain concerned.

“I really like fencing,” she mentioned. “I’d love to remain on this world … nevertheless it’s exhausting present in a spot the place it would not really feel prefer it desires you to exist.”

ALBA ORLANDO TRACKS her love of sports activities all the way in which to her toddler days.

The 31-year-old transgender girl remembers swinging a golf membership at age 3. In a while, she performed Little League baseball. However her favourite option to spend chilly Minnesota winters was in a bowling alley.

That modified when she received to highschool. She did not really feel she was progressing like different youth bowlers and she or he did not really feel like she belonged. For years, she stopped bowling altogether.

She started to ease again into it and joined a LGBTQ league in 2023. She additionally started to socially and medically transition.

“I purchased a brand new bowling ball and I had among the greatest scores in [the league’s] girl class,” Orlando mentioned. “I gained the award for many improved common. It was simply type of a reminder of what sports activities is to me, that as exhausting because it was to offer it up, to choose it again up once more modified my life.”

Whereas women and men have the identical guidelines in bowling, the U.S. Bowling Congress, the game’s governing physique, present in a research that elite males outperformed elite ladies bowlers by 27.5 pins on common in a three-game sequence.

Following Trump’s government order, the USBC adopted a coverage that made transgender ladies ineligible for the ladies’s class. The coverage took impact instantly on the elite degree and on Aug. 1 on the non-elite degree. Though the USBC is a nationwide governing physique, many on a regular basis leagues at native bowling alleys are affiliated with its chapters and are sure by its guidelines. The USBC declined an interview request for this story.

In a web-based FAQ, the group states that transgender ladies will nonetheless be welcome to take part on an all-women’s group if that group votes to be categorized as blended.

With the pending uncertainty, Orlando wonders how she’ll be capable to proceed enjoying the game that she only in the near past took up once more.

“I do not know the place I’d be … if I hadn’t bowled the final two years,” she mentioned. “I would in all probability be a bit heavier, a bit extra unhappy, and I would in all probability have much less associates.”

PARKER TIRRELL DOESN’T significantly wish to run. Her foot expertise aren’t nearly as good as a lot of her friends. She says she falls down so much. Nonetheless, she loves soccer. And he or she’s sincere about her greatest sporting problem as of late.

“It is probably not that I am trans, simply that I must typically put in a bit extra work,” she mentioned.

The 16-year-old from New Hampshire has confronted many challenges enjoying highschool and membership soccer. An opposing group wrote “PGS,” for “Shield Ladies Sports activities,” on their faces in eye black, Tirrell mentioned. At an away sport, some dad and mom wore pink wristbands with “XX,” for the feminine chromosomes. Typically, opponents ducked her within the postgame handshake line.

“Their loss,” she mentioned. “I give nice high-fives.”

In July 2024, then-Gov. Chris Sununu signed a regulation that prevented transgender women and girls from competing in women’ and ladies’s sports activities from fifth grade by highschool.

In public hearings, proponents of the measure emphasised security considerations and the notion {that a} transgender woman may take alternatives away from cisgender women, whereas opponents mentioned exclusion was unfair and risked emotionally harming transgender youngsters.

The Tirrell household and the household of one other transgender athlete, Iris Turmelle, sued the state to permit the women to rejoin their highschool groups. A federal decide issued an injunction in September blocking enforcement in opposition to Tirrell and Turmelle whereas the case continues, saying the regulation “on its face, discriminates in opposition to transgender women.”

When Trump’s government order got here down in February, the households expanded the lawsuit to problem it as nicely.

“The federal authorities is poised to swoop in and punish any colleges that enable alternatives for transgender college students at school sports activities,” mentioned Erchull, who represents each athletes. “We realized it was crucial that we additionally problem the chief order.”

Tirrell’s dad and mom, Sara and Zach, gathered together with her round their kitchen island to current the thought of including Trump to the case. “You imply, I get to sue the president?” Parker responded. “That is so cool!”

“If I do not say something, nothing’s going to vary,” she mentioned in an interview. “I would like different trans youngsters which are looking for some kind of option to relate to individuals, to have the ability to play sports activities. It is not truthful.”

Her dad and mom weren’t fairly as enthusiastic. “We feature the fear and Parker lives her life,” Sara mentioned, “which is the way in which I believe dad and mom are alleged to do their job a number of the time.”

If Tirrell may have it her method, she would play soccer “till my legs cease working.” If issues do not go her method, she mentioned she would contemplate enjoying on a boys’ group.

“I am not that athletic,” she mentioned. “However I’ll definitely attempt to see how that works out.”

BACK AT THE Maine Class C out of doors observe and subject state championships in June, Stark-Chessa churned across the observe. The noise, the nerves, all the prerace nervousness fell away. It was simply her operating.

Stark-Chessa, who gained a state title within the 800 meters in 2024, was allowed to compete within the 2025 state championships as a result of Maine Gov. Janet Mills refused to adjust to the chief order. Two weeks after his order, Trump clashed with Mills on the White Home, with the governor telling the president, “See you in courtroom.”

“To search out out that Maine wasn’t going to adjust to that was devastating, like, they do not actually care that a lot about us feminine athletes, for all of the rights that we work so exhausting for,” mentioned Hailey Himes, a hurdler and jumper for Presque Isle Excessive Faculty.

The Division of Justice sued the state in April, arguing Maine was “brazenly and defiantly flouting federal anti-discrimination regulation by implementing insurance policies that require women to compete in opposition to boys in athletic competitions designated solely for ladies.” Stark-Chessa was among the many athletes described within the lawsuit.

In Might, Maine’s legislature thought of a slew of bans on transgender athletes, all of which didn’t cross. One marathon public listening to drew testimony from greater than 900 individuals. Most opposed the bans, however some student-athletes stood to say it was unfair that they needed to line up in opposition to transgender women. Himes helped lead a march on Maine’s state Capitol constructing in Augusta.

“We actually simply needed to combat for what we all know is correct,” Himes mentioned. “So all of our exhausting work that we have put into sports activities for thus a few years would not go to waste as a result of a trans athlete takes the success away from us.”

Within the 1600, Stark-Chessa fell additional behind the pack with every lap. She positioned eleventh, ending in 5 minutes, 49.88 seconds. After crossing the end line, she fell in exhaustion, received up, and doubled over on the facet of the observe. One in all her opponents helped her up and provided a pat on the again.

“There are such a lot of runners locally who’re so supportive,” Stark-Chessa mentioned. “It has been this large outcry of help. And it is only a actually great group that I do not need to depart.”

It is not clear what the coverage will likely be in Maine when Stark-Chessa returns for her senior season within the fall. She would not know if she’ll race once more.

She obtained curiosity from Division III schools final fall, and letters proceed to trickle in right this moment, however after the NCAA modified its coverage to align with the chief order, she figured there was no sense responding.

“Soren mentioned, ‘I assume I am not going to run in faculty,'” her mom, Susan Stark, mentioned. “Being the optimistic, optimistic, resilient individual she is, she’s like, ‘There’s a lot of issues I can do with my life, and that kind of sucks however no matter, we’ll transfer on.'”

Regardless of the pushback and a spotlight, Stark-Chessa hopes the pathway to competitors stays open for her last highschool season.

“I actually hope that I am going to nonetheless be capable to run subsequent yr,” she mentioned.

Further reporting by ESPN senior author Alyssa Roenigk.