Transgender Athlete Lawsuit: Sprinter fights for fairness in Women’s Sports

“This is about fairness, it’s about biology,” said 20-year-old Chelsea Mitchell to the New York Post in relation to her lawsuit. The young woman from Connecticut feels cheated of several qualifications and titles she would have gotten if she hadn’t had to compete against transgender athletes. She talked about it with the New York Post. In total, there are 20 races that Mitchell lost because the US state allows transgender people to compete in girls’ competitions.

Competing was everything for Mitchell, as the young track and field athlete fought for a scholarship to American colleges in order to be promoted and then to assert herself in competitive sports. Even though she achieved that goal, she still felt that her athletic achievements had been significantly diminished by competing against transgender people. In her first state competition, she was knocked out of qualifying for the next round because a trans person was faster than her.

She experienced something similar in subsequent competitions. There, girls who were also from a biological point of view were regularly “kicked” out of the competition by trans people. “It was so obvious that they had a huge advantage – everyone could see it,” says Mitchell. “Even though there were only two trans people in the races, they took away a total of 15 titles from other female athletes.” She lost two New England Awards and four state girls’ championships.

At some point, she and two of her fellow students decided to go to court: “If I don’t stand up for myself, who will?” says the 20-year-old. So far, she has been unsuccessful in her lawsuit against the Connecticut Association of Schools and the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference. In December, her lawsuit was rejected in the first instance. Her case will be heard in a New York court next Tuesday. It’s all about recognizing multiple titles for her and other athletes who lost to trans people.