Source: Brian Bahr / Getty
INDIANAPOLIS — A federal judge has ruled that Indianapolis Public Schools must allow a 10-year-old transgender girl to play on a girls’ softball team pending further litigation, challenging a state law that bans transgender girls from participating on K-12 girls’ sports teams.
The preliminary injunction was issued Tuesday by U.S. District Court Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson. It prevents IPS from enforcing House Enrolled Act 1041, which went into effect July 1, as litigation continues.
It was spurred by a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana on behalf of the girl, identified in court documents by the initials A.M., and her mother. It says preventing A.M. and other transgender girls from participating in girls’ athletics violates Title IX and is discriminatory on the basis of transgender status and sex.
The lawsuit says A.M.’s school, which is within the Indianapolis Public School system, told A.M. that she wouldn’t be able to play softball this year because of HEA 1041. A.M’s birth certificate gender marker was changed to female and she is on puberty blockers.
The injunction notes A.M. “has a likelihood of succeeding on the merits of her claim that (HEA 1041) violates Title IX.”
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