STATE

Florida's new transgender athlete law challenged in federal court

John Kennedy, Capital Bureau
USA TODAY NETWORK-FLORIDA

TALLAHASSEE – A day before it takes effect, a new Florida law banning transgender females from competing on women's and girls’ sports teams was challenged Wednesday as unconstitutional in federal court.

The lawsuit was filed by a 13-year-old transgender girl soccer player from Broward County identified as “D.N.,” and her parents.  

Attorneys for the Human Rights campaign, a civil rights organization, are among those representing the girl, who they said is named Daisy, plays goalie and is starting 8th grade in the fall.

The lawsuit was filed in the Southern District of Florida on the last day of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) “Pride Month.”

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Gov. Ron DeSantis was joined by daughter, Madison, when he signed bill banning transgender females from playing women or girl's sports.

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the measure on the first day of Pride Month, which many in the community saw as intentionally confrontational. The governor said the new law would preserve the integrity of female sports in Florida schools.

The lawsuit, filed in Miami, argues the new measure is “ironically titled the ‘Fairness in Women’s Sports Act,’ (and) has nothing to do with fairness or equality for girls of women in sport.”  

Instead, D.N.’s attorneys say that it violates both federal Title IX protections for women’s sports and the U.S. Constitution’s equal protection provisions.

The transgender athlete ban now joins a host of new laws which DeSantis pushed through Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature that are being challenged in federal courts.

DeSantis is being sued by civil rights organizations and voters groups over enhanced criminal penalties and new offenses stemming from violence at demonstrations, a move prompted by the Black Lives Matter protests last year.

Voters’ rights groups are suing over new election standards decried as harmful to minorities, and internet technology associations are looking to overturn social media regulations enacted by DeSantis which followed former President Donald Trump being blocked for violating terms of use on Facebook and Twitter.

Like much of the legislative agenda embraced by DeSantis, the transgender bill echoes the views of many analysts on conservative media.

 “In Florida, girls are going to play girls sports and boys are going to play boys sports. That’s what we’re doing,” DeSantis said, during the June 1 signing ceremony, held at Jacksonville’s Trinity Christian Academy, where he was flanked by school athletes.

The new law would require public schools and universities to have athletes compete according to their sex assigned at birth, rather than gender identity.

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Florida’s ban is similar to those passed by Republican-led legislatures in several other states. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, last week vetoed a ban approved by lawmakers in his state.

The U.S. Justice Department under President Joe Biden recently said West Virginia’s transgender athlete ban violates the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause and Title IX, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any education program drawing federal funds.

U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, a Democrat from St. Petersburg who is running against DeSantis for governor next year, was among those critical of the measure, calling it “cruel legislation…creating an issue where one doesn’t exist.”

When approved along party lines by the state Legislature in April, lawmakers struggled to find any examples of transgender girls or women competing in Florida sports.  But supporters insisted that if it did happen, the transgender athletes would have an unfair advantage.

The new law would require public schools and universities to have athletes compete according to their sex assigned at birth, rather than gender identity.

Mary Tavarossi, president of ALSO Youth organization speaks about the recent ban on transgender student-athletes at the Manatee County courthouse in early June.

The Human Rights Campaign said the new law will force Daisy to play on the boys soccer team at her school – which she has no plans of doing – or quit sports.

“Playing sports makes me feel like I fit in; the thought of not being able to play next year scares me,” she said in a statement provided by the HRC.

Her parents, Jessica and Gary, also said that their daughter has been playing sports for the past seven years and her gender has not been an issue.

“She is just a girl that wants to play sports with her friends and be part of a team. As her parents, we just want her to be happy,” they said.

John Kennedy is a reporter in the USA TODAY Network’s Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jkennedy2@gannett.com, or on Twitter at @JKennedyReport