Three high school track athletes and their parents have filed a lawsuit in federal court to challenge a policy that allows transgender girls to compete in girls’ sports in the state of Connecticut.

The suit filed Wednesday in Hartford, Connecticut states the policy robs female athletes of opportunities because of the physical advantages of males. High school students Selina Soule, Alanna Smith, and Chelsea Mitchell, represented by Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), lost their chances of competing at higher levels because the transgender girls won first-place prizes in the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference events (CIAC).

The transgender girls, Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood, won 15 women state championship titles as well as taking over 85 opportunities to participate in higher-level competitions from female athletes in 2017, 2018, and 2019 seasons.

Mitchell shared her story, claiming she should have won the 2019 state championship in the women’s 55-meter indoor track competition if not for two transgender girls who won both first and second place. The other two young ladies included in the claim have shared similar stories. The CIAC’s policy directly violates the requirements of Title IX, a federal regulation designed to protect equal athletic opportunities for women and girls.

Christiana Holcomb, an ADF legal counsel, stated, “Girls deserve to compete on a level playing field. Forcing them to compete against boys isn’t fair, shatters their dreams, and destroys their athletic opportunities.”

“Having separate boys’ and girls’ sports has always been based on biological differences, not what people believe about their gender, because those differences matter for fair competition,” said Holcomb. “And forcing girls to be spectators in their own sports is completely at odds with Title IX, a federal law designed to create equal opportunities for women in education and athletics. Connecticut’s policy violates that law and reverses nearly 50 years of advances for women.”

LGBTQ advocacy group True Colors criticized the lawsuit, saying, “what they are proposing is legally sanctioned discrimination under this lawsuit.”

Watch the two transgender sprinters Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood share their story: