CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — Two lawsuits about transgender girl athletes — one challenging a state ban at schools and the other on the right to protest transgender athletes’ participation on girls teams — were the subject of hearings in federal court in New Hampshire on Thursday.
The first case is about two transgender teen girls, one who played soccer on the girls team this fall and another who plans to participate on the track team this winter.
A federal judge ruled earlier this year that the teens can try out for and play on girls school sports teams. The order only applies to those two individuals for now as they seek to overturn the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act on behalf of all transgender girl students in New Hampshire.
Lawyers for the teens said in court Thursday they hoped the matter could go to trial and be resolved before the start of the next school year in September. They said the teens’ school districts and others in the state have asked for guidance regarding the statute. Lawyers for the state said they needed more time to prepare.
Judge Talesha Saint-Marc suggested the timing of the trial was ambitious and asked that both sides talk further about scheduling.
The law, signed by Gov. Chris Sununu in July, bans transgender athletes in grades 5 to 12 from teams that align with their gender identity. It requires schools to designate all teams as either girls, boys or coed, with eligibility determined based on students’ birth certificates “or other evidence.”
Sununu had said it “ensures fairness and safety in women’s sports by maintaining integrity and competitive balance in athletic competitions.” About half of states have adopted similar measures.
In the second case Thursday, a judge heard from parties involved in a school district dispute in Bow over a decision to bar parents from wearing pink wristbands with “XX” — representing the female chromosomes — at a girls high school soccer game in September. The parents sued the district.
Parker Tirrell, one of the transgender girls challenging the state ban on participation, was playing on the opposing team that day.
The district issued no-trespass orders banning two parents from school grounds because they wore the wristbands. Those orders have since expired, but at issue Thursday was whether the plaintiffs should be allowed to wear the wristbands and carry signs at upcoming school events, including basketball games, swim meets and a music concert, while the case proceeds.
“They’re self-censoring, with good reason because they’ve been censored before, and defendants say they’re going to do it again,” said the plaintiffs’ attorneys, Endel Kolde. He pointed at a court document in which school district officials said they are justified in viewing the wristbands as targeting transgender students in general, regardless of whether such students were present at the events.
“This is viewpoint discrimination, and it’s very clear they’re proud of it,” he said.
Kolde initially conceded that a school district can limit speech “to some degree” in order to protect children from harassment, but he stopped short of agreeing with the judge’s claim that yelling “transgender students out” at a particular player would be subject to such regulation.
“It might be,” he said.
“I’m trying to get you to concede the obvious,” Judge Steven McAuliffe said.
“It’s less than obvious to me,” Kolde said.
The first witness was plaintiff Kyle Fellers, who said he purchased the pink wristbands thinking his daughter and her teammates would wear them, but ended up wearing one himself after they declined. After being told to leave the game, he stood in the parking lot with a sign that said “Protect women’s sports for female athletes.”
“I wanted to support women’s sports and I believed what was going on was a travesty,” he said.
His attorney played video recorded by a town police officer showing his interactions with Fellers at the game, including Fellers calling school officials “cowards” and “Nazis.” Under questioning by his attorney, Fellers said had no problem with transgender people outside of the issue of their participation in sports.
School district officials said they acted appropriately.
The district “properly exercised its duty to protect Parker Tirrell from intimidation and harassment during the game,” it said in a court document.
It also said it issued reasonable sanctions” against the two parents “for conduct they knew violated the school’s policies governing athletic events.”
FILE — Two teens challenging New Hampshire's new law banning transgender girls from girls' sports teams, Parker Tirrell, third from left, and Iris Turmelle, sixth from left, pose with their families and attorneys in Concord, N.H., Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Holly Ramer, File)
FORESTVILLE, Calif. (AP) — A major storm moving through Northern California on Thursday toppled trees and dropped heavy snow and record amounts of rain after damaging homes, killing two people and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of customers in the Pacific Northwest. Forecasters warned the risk of flash flooding and rockslides would continue. Scores of flights in and out of San Francisco's airport were canceled.
In Washington, more than 320,000 people — most of them in the Seattle area — were still without power Thursday as crews worked to clear streets of electrical lines, fallen branches and debris. Utility officials said the outages could last into Saturday.
Meanwhile on the East Coast, where rare wildfires have raged, New York and New Jersey welcomed much-needed rain that could ease the fire danger for the rest of the year.
The National Weather Service extended a flood watch into Saturday for areas north of San Francisco as the region was inundated by the strongest atmospheric river — a long and wide plume of moisture that forms over an ocean and flows through the sky over land — so far this season. The storm system roared ashore Tuesday as a “bomb cyclone,” unleashing winds that brought down trees and left two dead in Washington.
Communities in Washington began opening warming centers offering free internet and device charging. A number of medical clinics remained closed, forcing appointments to be rescheduled.
“I’ve been here since the mid-’80s. I haven’t seen anything like this," said Trish Bloor, who serves on the city of Issaquah’s Human Resources Commission, as she surveyed damaged homes Thursday.
Up to 16 inches (about 41 centimeters) of rain was forecast in southwestern Oregon and the northern counties of California through Friday. The Sonoma County Airport, in wine country north of San Francisco, received 6.92 inches (17.5 centimeters) of rain Wednesday, breaking a record dating to 1998.
In nearby Forestville, one person was hurt when a tree fell on a house. Small landslides were reported across California's North Bay region, including one on State Route 281 on Wednesday that caused a car crash, according to Marc Chenard, a weather service meteorologist.
Rain slowed somewhat but "persistent heavy rain will enter the picture again by Friday morning," the weather service office in San Francisco said on X. “We are not done!”
Dangerous flash flooding, rockslides and debris flows were possible, especially where hillsides were loosened by recent wildfires, officials warned. Scott Rowe, a hydrologist with the weather service in Sacramento, said so far the ground has been able to absorb the rain in California's Butte and Tehama counties where the Park Fire burned over the summer.
“It’s not necessarily how much rain falls; it’s how fast the rain falls," Rowe said Thursday.
Northern Mendocino and southern Humboldt counties received anywhere from 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters) of rain in the last 48 hours, and the same amounts were expected over the next 48 hours, California forecasters said Thursday. Wind gusts could top 50 mph (80 kph).
The storm system, which first hit the Pacific Northwest on Tuesday, reached the status of “ bomb cyclone,” which occurs when a cyclone intensifies rapidly.
A winter storm watch was in place for the northern Sierra Nevada above 3,500 feet (1,066 meters), where 15 inches (38 cm) of snow was possible over two days. Wind gusts could top 75 mph (121 kph) in mountain areas, forecasters said.
The storm had already dumped more than a foot of snow along the Cascades by Wednesday evening, according to the weather service. Forecasters warned of blizzard and whiteout conditions and near impossible travel at pass level.
Falling trees struck homes and littered roads across western Washington, killing at least two people. One woman in Lynnwood was killed when a large tree fell on a homeless encampment, while another woman in Bellevue was killed when a tree fell on a home.
More than a dozen schools were closed in the Seattle area Wednesday and some opted to extend those closures through Thursday.
In Enumclaw, east of Seattle, residents were cleaning up after their town clocked the highest winds in the state on Tuesday night: 74 mph (119 kph).
Resident Sophie Keene said the powerful gusts caused transformers to blow out around town. “Things were exploding, like, everywhere,” Keene told the Seattle Times. “Like the transformers over by the park. One blew big, it looked like fireworks just going off.”
Ben Gibbard, the lead singer of the indie rock bands Death Cab for Cutie and Postal Service, drove from his Seattle neighborhood Thursday morning to the woods of Tiger Mountain to go for his regular weekday run, but there were too many trees blocking the trail.
“We didn’t get hit that hard in the city,” he said. “I just didn’t assume it would be this kind of situation out here. Obviously, you feel the most for people who had their homes partially destroyed by this. My ability to run or not run on the trail pales in comparison to that, but it still is quite a sight to behold.”
In California, there were reports of about 9,000 power outages on Thursday morning, down from more than 20,000 on Wednesday night.
In Northern California, only 50 vehicles per hour were allowed through part of northbound Interstate 5 from 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of Redding to 21 miles (34 kilometers) south of Yreka due to snow, according to the state’s Department of Transportation.
About 150 flights were delayed and another two dozen were canceled early Thursday at San Francisco International Airport, after hundreds were delayed and dozens were canceled on Wednesday, according to tracking service FlightAware.
The weather service issued a flood watch for parts of southwestern Oregon through Friday evening, while rough winds and seas temporarily halted a ferry route in northwestern Washington between Port Townsend and Coupeville.
Parched areas of the Northeast got a much-needed shot of precipitation Thursday, providing a bit of respite in a region plagued by wildfires and dwindling water supplies. More than 2 inches (5 centimeters) of rain was expected to fall by Saturday morning in areas north of New York City, with snow mixed in at some higher elevations.
“Any rainfall is going to be significant at this point,” said Brian Ciemnecki, a weather service meteorologist in New York City, where the first drought warning in 22 years was issued this week. “Is it going to break the drought? No, we’re going to need more rain than that.”
Har reported from San Francisco and Weber from Los Angeles. Associated Press journalists contributing to this report are: Hallie Golden and Eugene Johnson in Seattle; Martha Bellisle in Issaquah, Wash.; Sarah Brumfield in Washington D.C.; and Michael Hill in Albany, N.Y.
The drive-thru area of a Taco Bell restaurant is damaged by a fallen tree Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024, in Issaquah, Wash., after a "bomb cyclone'"storm brought high winds to the area. (AP Photo/Manuel Valdes)
A woman was killed after a tree fell on her home during Tuesday night's "bomb cyclone" in severe weather in Bellevue, Wash. (Nick Wagner/The Seattle Times via AP)
People walk their dog as cars maneuver around downed power lines and trees caused by a "bomb cyclone" storm, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024, in Bellevue, Wash. (Nick Wagner/The Seattle Times via AP)
People carrying umbrellas while visiting the Golden Gate Bridge are seen through a heart on the window at the Round House Cafe in San Francisco, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
A pedestrian carrying an umbrella walks in front of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Motorists negotiate the snow along I-80 during a storm Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024, in Truckee, Calif. (AP Photo/Brooke Hess-Homeier)
Truckers hole up along the side of I-5 to let the storm pass before the highway is reopened in Weed, Calif., Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (Carlos Avila Gonzalez/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
Truck driver Kirill Foken shovels a trench alongside his truck's tires to free it up as he awaits for I-5 to reopen in Weed, Calif., Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (Carlos Avila Gonzalez/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
Truck driver Harry Singh of Seattle looks down Shastina Drive where several dozen big rigs were gathered after being stuck overnight in Weed, Calif., Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024. (Carlos Avila Gonzalez/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)
A Pacific Gas & Electric worker pauses while sawing a tree that toppled into power lines during heavy rains on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024, in the Occidental community of unincorporated Sonoma County, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Firefighters help a woman from a home after a tree toppled onto it during heavy rains on Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024, in the Forest Hills community of unincorporated Sonoma County, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
A truck crosses a flooded road Wednesday, Nov. 20, 2024, in Santa Rosa, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
