Just minutes after the Indiana General Assembly overrode Gov. Eric Holcomb’s veto of the state’s ban on transgender girls playing girls school sports, the first lawsuit against the measure was filed.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana is suing the Indianapolis Public Schools district on behalf of a 10-year-old transgender girl who will no longer be able to play softball on her school’s all-girls’ softball team. The child and her family were identified only by initials in the lawsuit.
The school district is subject to the suit because it must implement the law. The child at the center of the suit has been told she won’t be able to play next school year, should the law take effect as it is set to on July 1.
According to the complaint, playing softball has helped the child, known in the suit as A.M., to more fully experience her life as a girl.
“When she joined the softball team last fall, it helped her come out of her shell,” said A.M.’s mother, in a press release from the ACLU of Indiana. “I watched as she bloomed and felt more at ease in her skin.”
When A.M. heard about the law, her mom said she was hurt and angry.
“She wants to stand up for girls like her, as well as herself, because she knows how upset they are right now,” A.M.’s mom said. “She wanted me to share that ‘We can’t expect kids to say the Pledge of Allegiance and Liberty and Justice for All while not giving liberty and justice to all.’”
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday afternoon in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, asserts that preventing A.M. and other transgender girls from participating in girls’ athletics is discrimination on the basis of sex in violation of Title IX, and also represents discrimination on the basis of transgender status, as well as sex, in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution.
Ken Falk, legal director at the ACLU of Indiana, said it would be nice to have the issue resolved ahead of the next softball season.
“She is a girl,” he said, of A.M. “To deny that is to very, very harmful.”
Holcomb vetoed House Bill 1041 in March, saying it “fell short” of its intended goal of providing a clear and consistent state policy. And, he said, it’s a solution for a problem that doesn’t exist in Indiana.
“It implies that the goals of consistency and fairness in competitive female sports are not currently being met,” Holcomb wrote. “After thorough review, I find no evidence to support either claim even if I support the overall goal.”
On Tuesday, the Indiana General Assembly voted to override that veto.
The House voted to override the veto, 67-28 and the Senate voted to do the same, 32-15.
“This is a policy that we feel is appropriate,” said Senate President Pro Tempore Rodric Bray, R-Martinsville. “We don’t like to get the state of Indiana sued, but it happens from time to time.”
Lawmakers were back at the Statehouse Tuesday for their annual technical corrections day, during which they correct errors in bill language from the previous session. The session ended in mid-March.
Throughout the legislative session, the ACLU of Indiana joined dozens of transgender individuals, their families and other LGBTQ advocates in opposing HB 1041. Opponents called the bill discriminatory and said it would be harmful to the mental health of transgender children.
Other states have enacted similar legislation. In those that have seen litigation, the laws have been blocked while the cases work their way through the courts.
“It’s unfortunate legislation,” Falk said, “because it does nothing but punish and cause harm with no benefit.”
The bill’s supporters have said it is intended to protect fair and competition in girls’ sports. They could not provide instances, though, of girls sports being harmed by the participation of transgender girls. The IHSAA said that no transgender girls have completed the application process to play high school sports.
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