In May 2019, Canton High junior Chelsea Mitchell leads Bloomfield’s Terry Miller and Cromwell’s Andraya Yearwood in the finals of the 100 meters at the Class S championship meet in New Britain. Miller won the race with Mitchell finishing second.
The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld a student athletic policy in Connecticut that allows transgender students to play on teams most consistent with their gender identity.
In a ruling on Friday, the Second Circuit ruled the claims that cisgender girls were denied opportunities or championships are moot and unfounded, ultimately ruling they lacked standing to challenge the policy of the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC).
In April 2021, a U.S. District Court judge had dismissed a lawsuit seeking to prevent transgender athletes from competing against girls in high school sports in Connecticut. Judge Robert Chatigny ruled in his decision that the suit was moot because the two transgender athletes named in the lawsuit had graduated and the plaintiffs had not identified any other transgender athletes that might compete against.
In 2019, Canton’s Chelsea Mitchell was one of four high school track and field athletes who filed a federal suit claiming that the CIAC policy to allow transgender students to compete in girls sports was a violation of Title IX, the landmark 1972 law that requires public schools to provide girls and boys with equitable sports opportunities.
The group Alliance Defending Freedom filed the initial lawsuit in 2019 and appealed the 2021 decision to the Second Circuit.
“Today’s ruling is a critical victory for fairness, equality, and inclusion,” said Joshua Block, senior staff attorney for the American Civil Liberty Union’s LGBTQ & HIV Project. “The court ultimately found transgender girls have as much a right to play as cisgender girls under Title IX. This critical victory strikes at the heart of political attacks against transgender youth while helping ensure every young person has the right to play.”
The ACLU defended the two transgender athletes, Bloomfield High’s Terry Miller and Cromwell’s Andraya Yearwood.
“The CIAC was confident in its inclusionary policies from the onset of this case,” said Dr. Glenn Lungarini, Executive Director of the Connecticut Association of Schools (CAS) and the CIAC. “The CIAC is pleased with the decision of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold the lower court’s dismissal.”
“The Second Circuit (court) got it wrong, and we’re evaluating all legal options, including appeal,” said Christiana Kiefer, Senior Counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom. “Our clients — like all female athletes — deserve access to fair competition. Thankfully, a growing number of states are stepping up to protect women’s athletics.”
Eighteen states have passed laws that bar transgender athletes from competing in girls athletic events, according to Kiefer.
The dispute centered around transgender athletes Miller and Yearwood. Both identified as males at birth. But now, they identify as female and CIAC rules allow athletes to compete based on the gender they identify as.
As a sophomore, Miller competed for Bulkeley in Hartford before transferring to Bloomfield and competing with the Warhawks for two years. Yearwood attended Cromwell for four years. Both athletes, who competed in track and field, graduated in June 2020.
Cisgender athletes claimed in their federal lawsuit that they lost opportunities to compete at the State Open or the New England championships with Miller and Yearwood in the field. Cisgender are people that identify with their gender assigned at birth.
The top five finishers in each individual event at the CIAC class meet (LL, L, MM, M and S) qualify for the State Open with an allowance for athletes who met a certain time or distance standard. The top six finishers at the Open earn a spot at the New England championships.
According to the lawsuit, Miller and Yearwood won 15 state championships in outdoor track and field and indoor track and field since 2017.
In 2019, Miller won her second straight State Open championship in the 200 meters in outdoor track and field. A week earlier, she swept the 100 and 200 meter races at the Class S championship, beating Mitchell and setting new Class S records in the two victories.
Mitchell won the 100 meter title at the State Open in June 2019 with a new school record time of 11.67 seconds after Miller was disqualified in the finals for a false start. Yearwood was fourth in that race.
Mitchell went onto capture the 2019 New England championship in the 100, becoming the first Canton girl to capture a New England title. She was later named the girls track athlete of the year by the Connecticut High School Coaches Association.
The 2020 outdoor track season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic but the athletes did compete during the indoor track and field season. Mitchell won three titles at the Class S meet in February 2020, including the 55 meters where she beat Miller for the first time by 0.02 of a second.
A week later, Mitchell won the 55 meters again with Miller finishing third. At the 2020 New England championship, Mitchell was second in the 55 meters with Miller finishing fifth. Mitchell graduated from Canton High in June 2020.
The other girls in the lawsuit are Glastonbury’s Selina Soule, Danbury’s Alanna Smith and Immaculate-Danbury’s Ashley Nicoletti. The case is called Soule vs. the CIAC.
The full Second Circuit ruling can be found online.
