A Catholic school’s girl’s soccer team has boycotted a match against a school with a transgender goalie who was allowed to play despite state law restrictions.
Varsity student athletes at Bishop Brady High School in Concord, New Hampshire refused to show up for their scheduled match against Kearsarge Regional High School in North Sutton on Friday, according to multiple reports.
The Bishop Brady girls reportedly believed that Kearsarge was at an advantage because their goalie Maëlle Jacques was a biological male and ‘boycotted’ the game in an effort to ‘say no to unfair competition’, the Moms for Liberty group of Hillsborough County shared on social media.
Jacques, 16, was banned from the team earlier this year after the Kearsarge school board voted to bring the district into compliance with a new state law that barred transgender students from competing in girl’s sports.
But the school board in August ruled she could rejoin the team after she made a direct appeal, citing a lawsuit that claimed New Hampshire’s sports ban violates federal Title IX measures. A federal court also issued an order last month blocking the enforcement of the ban.
Kearsarge is one of two schools in the state with a player who is a biological male competing in girl’s sports.
The Bishop Brady Giants were scheduled to play the Kearsarge Cougars on Friday but instead elected to forfeit the match.
Their act of protest received praise from former competitive swimmer Riley Gaines, who was among 16 female athletes who filed a lawsuit against the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) after competing against transgender swimmer Lia Thomas.
Gaines, an activist fighting for fair competition in female sports, praised the Giants’ protest in a tweet, saying: ‘Bishop Brady high school varsity girls soccer team in NH forfeits and accepts a loss against opposing team whose star player is a man.
‘They are the second team in the district to do so. This is the way. #BOYcott.’
However, the team was not met with the same level of support from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester, which supports Bishop Brady.
When Bishop Peter Libasci learned that parents and students may take action against the Kearsarge players, he and his legal team crafted a statement opposing the boycott, The NH Journal reported.
Dave Thibault, Superintendent of Schools for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Manchester, also urged the girls to play ahead of the match, reportedly citing ‘Christian charity’.
‘We don’t believe it’s right to just forfeit a game when playing a team with a transgender athlete because we have an issue that is not being handled properly by another party,’ Thibault said in a statement obtained by the newspaper.
But ultimately, the competition was canceled because several students refused to play.
The Diocese’s director of communications Tara Bishop reportedly tried to downplay the boycott, telling the NH Journal: ‘There simply weren’t enough players available for this game.’
Bishop Brady parents, in addition to concerns over Jacques being a biological male, have also expressed worry over the presence of her father at games.
Marc Jacques is a registered sex offender after being convicted last month on federal charges of distributing child sex abuse material.
According to court records, he was found in possession of at least 200 images and videos of child sex abuse, many of which he uploaded on a social media platform.
Marc Jacques was also arrested on Friday for an alleged bail violation and is due in court today for a bail revocation hearing.
Bishop Brady’s boycott comes just two months after a federal judge in New Hampshire ruled that two transgender students could disregard a state law that bans them from competing in women’s and girls’ sports at their public high schools.
US District Court Chief Judge Landya McCafferty in August allowed Parker Tirrell, 15, and Iris Turmelle, 14 – who both use the pronouns she and her – to participate in female sports after their families filed a lawsuit to overturn the ‘Fairness in Women’s Sports Act’ (HB 1205).
Republican Governor Chris Sununu signed the new law in July, which requires students to play on sports teams that align with the sex listed on their birth certificate.
When he signed the bill into law, Sununu said it ‘ensures fairness and safety in women’s sports by maintaining integrity and competitive balance in athletic competitions.’
But the Tirrell and Turmelle families in their lawsuit alleged the bill ‘denies [the pair] equal educational opportunities and singles them out for discrimination solely because they are transgender girls’.
It also argued that the ban violated federal law and constitutional guarantees of equal protection, as well as denies the educational, social, and physical and mental health benefits associated with playing sports. The suit also claimed that ban isolates transgender players from friends and teammates.
Last month, a federal court blocked the enforcement of HB 1205, ruling that the legislation discriminates against transgender students in violation of Title IX and the US Constitution.
The judge ruled that the bill ‘on its face, discriminates against transgender girls’, adding that it is ‘not even a close call’.
The ruling also stated that ‘the stigma and humiliation that comes from such treatment of a child at the hands of the State is substantial and irreparable’.