CONCORD, N.H. — Two transgender girls who were among the first to legally challenge President Donald Trump’s executive order titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” have dropped their lawsuit in New Hampshire. Their attorney says the decision was driven by a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding state-level bans on transgender athletes in girls’ sports, as well as significant personal struggles the girls and their families have faced.
“This case was always about two courageous young girls who simply wanted the same opportunities as their peers to participate in school life,” said their attorney, Chris Erchull of GLAD Law, in a statement issued Thursday. “Their willingness to stand up to extraordinary hostility made clear the human cost of laws that target transgender youth.”
The two teenagers, Parker Tirrell and Iris Turmelle, originally filed a complaint in 2024 against New Hampshire’s law prohibiting transgender girls from participating in school sports. They later updated that complaint to also challenge Trump’s executive order. A federal judge had issued a court order permitting them to continue playing sports while the case moved forward.
For Tirrell, that meant she could remain on her high school girls’ soccer team. For Turmelle, it gave her the opportunity to try out for various sports.
Both legal teams agreed to put the case on hold while the Supreme Court weighed similar laws from Idaho and West Virginia that barred transgender girls and women from competing on school and college athletic teams. Last month, the high court upheld those laws and ruled that excluding transgender girls and women from sports does not violate Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in education.
Turmelle and her family left New Hampshire last summer, citing a wave of proposed legislation targeting transgender people. Among those measures, Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte signed a law prohibiting medical professionals from prescribing puberty blockers or hormone replacement therapy to new transgender patients under the age of 18.
“Though there may be a carve-out for people already receiving gender-affirming care, that is way too close a call for us to risk staying,” Turmelle’s mother, Amy Manzetti, wrote in an opinion piece at the time. “Other New Hampshire laws also seek to erase her.”
Over the past five years, most Republican-led states have enacted laws or policies restricting gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, limiting bathroom access, and banning transgender youth from certain sports. The Williams Institute at UCLA estimates that roughly 3% of young people between ages 13 and 17 identify as transgender.
“The challenges with relocation are significant and burdensome — this includes having to find new employment, buying and selling homes, packing and moving possessions, integrating kids with a new school system, losing access to longstanding family and friends, and potential loss of income,” said Corinne Goodwin, executive director of the Eastern PA Trans Equality Project in Pennsylvania, in an email statement.
“But these families do so because they love their kids and know that supporting them with the care and opportunities they need is critical to their long-term success and happiness,” Goodwin added.
Tirrell, 17, started her junior year last fall playing on her school’s girls’ junior varsity soccer team. Early in the season, things seemed to be going well — each time she scored a goal, her parents would celebrate with a round of ice cream. But within a few weeks, she made the decision to stop playing.
“With all of the political stuff going on, soccer wasn’t just about the game anymore,” her mother, Sara Tirrell, told The Associated Press.
The atmosphere had shifted from one of sport to one of bracing for potential conflict. “Were there any local Facebook groups where they were sort of agitating about potential protests and how do we prepare, and what are we walking into, and we never kind of knew,” Sara Tirrell said. “We were on a lot of pins and needles, especially after the previous season.”
She referenced an earlier incident at an away game in which two fathers from an opposing team were removed from school grounds for wearing pink wristbands marked “XX” — symbolizing female chromosomes. Those men sued the school district, a judge ruled against them, and they have since appealed.
During last fall’s season, school administrators were more visibly present at games, and bus drivers parked closer to the field so students would not have to walk through the parking lot, Sara Tirrell said.
“Parker didn’t talk about it a lot, but I think she could see that stress for everybody — for her, for her teammates, for her coaches,” Sara Tirrell said. “She felt kind of bad about pulling them all into that circus again. And so she ultimately said, ‘This isn’t fun anymore and I don’t want to do it.’”
Parker’s father described the environment as one of “palpable tension.” Even at home games, “there would typically be a couple of police officers at the home games where there weren’t previously,” said Zach Tirrell.
Parker’s parents are hopeful she will return to soccer one day. For now, her mother said, “she plans to be around and use her voice to continue standing up to discrimination. In some ways she’s had to grow up a lot faster than some of her peers.”
