A federal judge rejected a Quakertown student’s motion to bar transgender athletes from girls’ sports

A federal judge on Tuesday denied a Quakertown student’s request for a restraining order barring transgender students from participating in girls’ sports.

During a hearing in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia, Judge Wendy Beetlestone told the plaintiff’s lawyer, Solomon Radner, that his motion was too broad — with language seeking an injunction applying to every transgender female athlete in the nation — and had wrongly excluded the transgender student in the Colonial School District whom he was seeking to bar from track-and-field competition.

She also questioned the urgency, since Radner was not sure whether his client would be competing again against the Colonial student in future races.

The hearing came more than a month after Radner filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Quakertown student and her mother, Holly Magalengo, challenging Colonial and the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association for allowing the transgender Colonial student to participate in girls’ cross country and track meets. The lawsuit — which identifies both students only by their initials — contends the Quakertown student’s constitutional rights were violated by being forced to compete against the Colonial student, to whom she lost a race in September.

The Colonial School District defended the district’s policy for transgender students in court Tuesday, despite President Donald Trump’s threats to withhold funding for schools that allow trans students to compete in girls’ sports, as well as a recent change to PIAA policy prompted by Trump’s executive orders.

Lawyers for Colonial said that they had allowed transgender students to compete on teams matching their “authentic gender identity” since 2019, and that the policy was in line with federal and state law. The district cited a 2018 federal court ruling in favor of the Boyertown Area School District, upholding that district’s policy to allow transgender students to use bathrooms aligned with their gender identities, as well as the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act, which bars discrimination based on gender identity.

The student targeted by the lawsuit — a senior at Plymouth-Whitemarsh High School — is the only transgender female student participating in sports at the high school, Michelle Mintz, a lawyer for Colonial, said Tuesday.

Mintz also said that the September race lost by the Quakertown student had no bearing on her ability to compete in other races, and that there was no evidence the Quakertown student had lost any possible scholarships as a result of competing against Colonial’s transgender athlete — who the district said is also not in contention for any athletic scholarships. (The Colonial athlete placed 139th in Fall District One championships, according to the district.)

The lawsuit does not allege “any particular harm” suffered by the Quakertown student, aside from losing two races, Mintz said.

Under a previous PIAA policy, the athletics organization had accepted a principal’s decision as to a student’s gender when the student’s gender was “questioned or uncertain.” But in the wake of Trump’s executive orders declaring that the country recognizes only two sexes, and promising to rescind federal funds from educational institutions “that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities,” the PIAA revised that policy.

Now, the organization says that a school’s decision on a student’s sex — rather than gender — will be accepted by PIAA, and that schools “are required to consult with their school solicitors relative to compliance” with Trump’s order on “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.”

On Tuesday, Dana Chilson, a lawyer for the PIAA, told the court that it did not “actively support or actively oppose” the Quakertown student’s motion, but that “we concur with the relief” sought by the student. When Beetlestone questioned how the PIAA could endorse an order to ban transgender athletes but not the arguments in the motion seeking that ban, Chilson said the PIAA had “been very careful” in its public statements.

In questions to Radner — a Michigan-based lawyer who said he was handling the case pro bono — Beetlestone noted that he had cited one of Trump’s executive orders, which states it “was not intended … to create any right or benefit.”

“To the extent you are arguing this changes the law, the executive order specifically says it does not change the law,” Beetlestone said. Radner said the order was “something that kind of moves in our favor.”

Radner said his argument was straightforward. Without “biology defining” who is male or female, “there simply is no definition,” he said. “Anyone, at any time, can be male or female,” which “doesn’t seem to pass constitutional muster, in my opinion.”

The Education Law Center, a Philadelphia-based group that supports LGBTQ students and has been monitoring the lawsuit, said Tuesday that it was pleased with Beetlestone’s denial of the restraining order. “There is significant legal authority for trans kids’ right to play,” based on federal appeals court decisions, said Kristina Moon, senior attorney for the law center. She said Colonial’s policy acknowledges “that it’s required in Pennsylvania to allow trans students to play sports aligned with the gender identity.”