Connecticut Republican party chairman J.R. Romano announced this week that his state’s GOP will honor three high school girls whose families filed a federal case to block transgender athletes from competing in high school girls sports. The girls will receive their state GOP party’s Courage Award at a fundraising event recognizing women’s leadership on March 25, reported The Boston Globe.
“We think in today’s day and age these young women standing up for what they believe should be honored,” Romano told the Hartford Current.
However Former Conn. Lieutenant Governor Nancy Wyman, also the state’s Democratic party chair, expressed a different view.
“It’s beyond shameful that J. R. Romano and the Connecticut Republicans would use high school students struggling with a complex and highly personal issue to raise money,” she said in a statement.
“Whatever your beliefs, we’re talking about the lives of teenagers,” she said. “If the Republicans really cared about these young people, they would never make this a money issue. Are there any boundaries left that the Republican Party won’t cross?”
As we reported earlier this month, the families of the three Connecticut high school track team runners filed their federal lawsuit on Feb. 12 to exclude transgender female athletes from participating in girls sports—despite a state law on the side of the trans athletes.
“The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, which governs high school sports in the state, says its policy follows a state anti-discrimination law requiring students to be treated in school according to the gender with which they identify. That means that athletes can compete according to their expressed gender identity as opposed to their sex assigned at birth,” explained The Boston Globe back in June, when the original complaint was filed.
The girls’ families argue that “allowing [transgender girls] to compete has deprived [other members of the girls teams] of track titles and scholarship opportunities,” reported the Globe.
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