New York, 3 May 2023 – Pallas Partners (US) LLP filed an amicus brief on behalf of The Trevor Project in support of the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference’s (CIAC) policy allowing transgender student-athletes to participate in school athletic programs consistent with their gender identity on 1 May 2023.
“All children should be welcome on school sports teams given the emotional and physical benefits of playing on a team,” said Pallas Partner Shireen Barday. “Pallas Partners is grateful to partner with The Trevor Project in raising awareness about the importance of ensuring that transgender youth can play on sports teams — just like everyone else.”
Pallas Partners (US) LLP, along with Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, is pro bono counsel to The Trevor Project. The Trevor Project is the leading suicide prevention organization for LGBTQ young people and has been actively working to secure access to inclusive sports teams for transgender athletes.
“By their inclusive nature, policies and laws like that of the CIAC help remove the stigma that transgender youth—a group that already experiences significant harassment and discrimination—routinely face,” The Trevor Project brief states.
The case is Soule et al v. CT Association of Schools et al, No. 21-1365 (2nd Cir.). The Trevor Project’s amicus brief can be found here.
The Trevor Project’s 2023 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ Young People Mental Health found that 64% of transgender and non-binary youth reported being the subject of discrimination due to their gender identity and 27% of transgender and non-binary youth reported that they have been physically threatened or harmed due to their gender identity. And research has found that transgender and nonbinary youth who report experiencing discrimination based on their gender identity had more than double the odds of attempting suicide in the past year compared to those who did not.
Conversely, The Trevor Project also found that affirming gender identity among transgender and nonbinary young people is consistently associated with lower rates of attempting suicide. While only half of transgender and non-binary youth found their school to be gender-affirming, such findings clearly demonstrate the benefits that affirming school environments have on a group of youth that faces widespread institutional and daily discrimination.
