The legal battle over New Hampshire’s transgender sports ban is expanding to challenge President Donald Trump’s executive orders preventing transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports.

Lawyers representing high school transgender athletes Parker Tirrell from Plymouth and Iris Turmelle from Pembroke, who initially sued the state in federal court over the law passed last July barring transgender athletes from participating in school sports, are now challenging Trump’s nationwide ban on transgender girls and women in sports.

The list of new defendants includes President Trump, the U.S. Department of Justice, Attorney General Pamela Bondi, the U.S. Department of Education and Denise Carter, the acting secretary of the U.S. Department of Education.

This is the first lawsuit in the country filed against Trump’s executive order banning transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports, lawyers said. 

Chris Erchull, senior staff attorney at GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD Law) said that school sports are a crucial aspect of education and no child should be excluded due to their identity. The lawsuit argued Trump’s executive orders deprive certain students of their rights.

“The Trump Administration’s executive orders amount to a coordinated campaign to prevent transgender people from functioning in society,” said Erchull.“The systematic targeting of transgender people across American institutions is chilling, but targeting young people in schools, denying them support and essential opportunities during their most vulnerable years is especially cruel. Our clients Parker and Iris simply want to go to school, learn and play on teams with their peers.”

The ACLU of New Hampshire is also involved in the litigation on behalf of Tirrell, Turmelle, their families and all other students affected by the ban.

“I love playing soccer and we had a great season last fall. I just want to go to school like other kids and keep playing the game I love,” said Tirrell.

The federal court of New Hampshire has granted Tirrell and Turmelle ordered injunctive relief, meaning they can still play school sports while the state’s case progresses.

But Trump’s executive order could override that protection, risking their ability to compete.

“It’s heartbreaking to have the federal government so aggressively go after our daughter,” Turmelle’s parents, Amy Manzelli and Chad Turmelle, said in a statement. “Iris is looking forward to playing spring sports and being part of a team. We just want her to be able to attend school and get the most out of her education – on and off the court.”

The outcome of this case could have a nationwide impact.

Kearsarge School District, one of three districts in New Hampshire with a transgender athlete, had initially voted against enforcing the state’s ban. But after Trump’s executive order, Superintendent John Fortney told the Monitor that the district has since “adjusted practices internally” to comply with the new federal mandate.

Trump signed the executive order titled “Keeping Men Out Of Women’s Sports” on Feb. 5. The order threatens to cut federal funding from schools, universities and colleges that allow transgender women to compete in girls’ or women’s sports.

The Bow and Dunbarton School District has received an updated policy from the New Hampshire School Boards Association that shifts away from the Biden administration’s 2024 Title IX policies, which expanded protections against discrimination based on sex and gender identity. The district’s new policies will represent a return to 2020 Title IX policies, which were implemented during the previous Trump administration.

“It became apparent to us that in order to protect Parker and Iris's right to play sports, we would have to challenge [Trump’s] executive order,” said Erchull. “Hopefully we can get a declaration that the executive order is unconstitutional and that an injunction stopping its enforcement is right.”

Since Trump took office on Jan. 20, he has issued several executive orders rolling back transgender rights. One declares that the federal government will only recognize two sexes—male and female—as assigned at birth. Another eliminates federal support for gender-affirming care for minors under 19.

Advocates see these as part of a larger, coordinated attack on the transgender community.

“We’re talking about sports, but really, this isn’t about sports,” said Erchull. “This is about the federal government’s sustained attack on transgender people that is beyond anything we’ve ever seen before.”