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Parker Tirrell, 16, enjoys her art classes, browsing tiktok and working at her new work in a pet store. But especially the transgender against likes to play football.
Until last year, that wasn’t a problem.
“I just lived my life like any normal person,” says Tirrell, who has been 4 since she has been 4. “I’m accepted. I had a cute, steady team that I played all the time. “
Then came a cascade of obstacles, started with a state ban on transgender girls in girls sports, and recently President Donald Trump’s February 5 executive order, “to keep men out of women’s sports.”
Life is anything but normal. Tirrell, along with Iris Turmelle, 15, another transgender girl, is the first to dispute Trump’s order, six months after suing their own state over the ban and got a court order to play them.
“I just feel like I’m being singled out by lawmakers and Trump and just the whole legislative system for something I can’t control,” Tirrell told Associated Press in an interview. “It just doesn’t feel wonderful. It’s not great. It just feels like they don’t want me to exist. But I’m not going to stop existing just because they don’t want me to do it. ‘
Transgender people represent a very small part of the youth population of the country – about 1.4% of teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17, about 300,000 people.
Turels, who like to try different sports, have described as stressful, difficult, annoying and overwhelming over the past few years – “so many laws that you and your community target for who you are and what you stand for and just your identity.”
One message she hopes to come to others is ‘that we are a human being.’
“We’re not going to sleep in the day and go out at night and drinking people’s blood. We don’t hate sunlight. We are just like you. ‘
Supporters of the ban say it’s about fairness and safety
Trump and others say that the ban is necessary to make girls’ sport fair and safe.
The idea received support in the US when Trump fought powerfully against the rights for transgender people.
During the November election, AP Votecast, a survey, among others, 115,000 voters nationwide, found that about half of voters generally said that support for transgender rights in government and society has gone too far. About a quarter said the support was about right and about 2 out of 10 said that the support did not go far enough.
About half of the states have adopted similar measures as the Sports ban of New Hampshire. Even some Democrats, including Gavin Newsom, California, a potential presidential candidate of 2028, came out to play transgender girls in girls teams.
Trump’s order gives federal agencies wide latitude to ensure that entities receiving federal funding, titled IX – which prohibits sexual discrimination in schools – in accordance with the view of the Trump administration that interprets ‘sex’ as the generation someone assigned during birth.
Trump’s administration uses the law to push against schools and states that provide accommodation for transgender students.
The order is one of a series that Trump signed to target transgender and non -binary people. The US Supreme Court is looking at various cases, including one of Tennessee on whether the state prohibits from treating transgender miners violates the Constitution. At least two other states have asked the court to review decisions that have blocked the maintenance of state laws that prohibit transgender athletes from participating in sports.
A group in Texas, called Female Athletes United, asked to intervene in Tirrell and Turmelle’s lawsuit to defend Trump’s orders. The group said in their filing that there are members in the US who want to play on a safe and level playing field, “and cannot do it if they are forced to compete against men.”
The Trump administration has not yet responded to Tirrell and Turmelle’s lawsuit. The US Department of Justice told AP in a statement that it is unfair and dangerous to allow boys to participate in girls sports.
For both Teenagers in New Hampshire, the argument is that they have an unfair advantage. Tirrell says she is less muscular than other girls in her team, and Turmelle said she didn’t see herself as a big athlete.
“For the argument that it’s not fair, I just want to point out that I didn’t get into the softball team,” Remember Turmelle last year of her attempt. “If it wasn’t fair, I don’t know what you want from me.”
Balancing a teenager with an advocate
Turmelle and Tirrell balance the school and normal life with advocacy and testify to bills that they think are their rights. Tirrell recently testified against a bill that would stop hormone treatments and puberty blockers for transgender youth. Both teens received puberty-blocking medication and hormone therapy so that they did not go through male puberty.
Turmelle, a first -year student in high school, started scraping on postcards when she was in elementary school and asked legislative members: “Please let me play in the girls teams.” Last year, she was honored by the New Hampshire Women’s Foundation as one of his ‘groundbreaking women’ for her activism.
After a controversy where two fathers from an opposing team from the school grounds were banned from wearing pink wrist bands marked ‘XX’ to represent female chromosomes during a match, Tirrell said she got a nice note from two of the other players’ players, she stuck it in her room, “it feels great.”
“We think you are so inspiring to continue, despite all the negativity,” it says. “We support you and thank you. You are a wonderful role model for young girls! ‘
Turmelle, who enjoys playing Minecraft with friends, adds to her collection of mineral rocks displayed in her room and tends towards the family of the family, now keeps her eye on tennis. She tried recently and made the girls team.
“I want the option to do this because I want the freedom to choose,” she said of sports, adding, “It just makes me accept, and who doesn’t want to be accepted?”
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