It's 'devastating' that female athletes retire after being forced to compete against biological men: Selina Soule
Track athlete Selina Soule and attorney Christiana Kiefer speak out against transgender athletes in women's sports on 'America Reports.'
Selina Soule, a track and field champion who was forced to compete against biological males in high school, pleaded with other women to take a stand in defense of female athletes as she prepares for a legal battle against the state of Connecticut.
"Everybody who has encountered this issue needs to speak up and ask for fairness," Soule said Wednesday on "America Reports." "I was one of the very first to start speaking on this issue, and it’s taken awhile, but we are finally starting to get somewhere…we need to protect every single girl in this country,"
Soule urged "everybody out there…to start speaking on this issue and ask for fairness to be restored to women sports."
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Some states are moving toward banning transgender student athletes from participating on the teams that align with their gender identity. (AP Photo/Samuel Metz, File)
Soule made the comment as she heads back to court to appeal her case challenging a Connecticut ruling that allows transgender students to participate in sports consistent with their preferred gender.
Soule and other athletes were high school track student-athletes in 2020 when they first filed the lawsuit against the Connecticut Association of Schools, alleging that the policy allowing biological males to compete against women violated Title IX.
The Alliance Defending Freedom is now working to appeal a ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Robert Chatigny, who dismissed the lawsuit on procedural grounds, saying there was no dispute to resolve because the two transgender athletes have graduated, and the plaintiffs could not identify other female transgender athletes.
Penn transgender swimmer Lia Thomas competed against women's sports advocate Riley Gaines. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)
Soule's attorney, Christiana Kiefer, who joined her client in the Fox News interview, said women are being robbed of athletic opportunities in their own sports because of the unfair physical advantage possessed by biological men.
"Girls deserve to compete on a level playing field, and what Selena experienced…was being sidelined in her own sport and that’s a clear violation of Title IX," she argued.
Earlier Wednesday, Hannah Arensman, a 35-time national cyclocross champion who walked away from her sport at the age of 25 after losing to a transgender competitor in the women’s championships last season, revealed on Fox News that she plans to retire.
Soule said she finds it "devastating" that transgender athletes are pushing women out of their own sport.
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Hannah Arensman competes in 2016. (Tim de Waele/Corbis via Getty Images)
"It's devastating that there are women out there who are retiring or changing their events because they are being forced to compete against biological males where those males, if they were competing in the men’s category, they would be barely mediocre. But in the women, they are dominating the field, and it’s a very, extremely frustrating situation," she told Fox News' Sandra Smith.
"It should not be happening. Women’s sports should be preserved as just women’s sports," she added.
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