A southeast Michigan parent has filed a Title IX complaint with the U.S. Department of Education over claims a transgender student athlete played against his daughter’s volleyball team.
The complaint alleges the opposing school didn’t submit the proper waiver for the child to play, that parents didn’t get notice ahead of the match, and that both teams shared a locker room while playing in Monroe.
Monroe High School student Briley Lechner plays on the volleyball team. She said her team was caught off guard by the player.
“Nobody would have expected that. That would’ve been the last thought because as I was looking at this person, admiring how amazing they were, admiring how high they could jump, I was kind of getting down on myself. Like, I wonder why I’m not capable of that,” Lechner said during a press conference to announce the complaint in Monroe Monday.
The Michigan High School Athletic Association (MHSAA) says it received one waiver for a transgender child to play sports this past fall but that it couldn’t give more information for privacy reasons.
MHSAA spokesperson Geoff Kimmerly said those waivers are granted on a case-by-case basis, using factors like medical records and whether the student has gone through hormone therapy or gender-affirming surgery.
“We look at every athlete individually,” Kimmerly said. “We’re talking about one individual student, so they’re all going to be different a little bit in some way and so they’re all going to be unique."
Kimmerly said that’s been the practice for several years. Sometimes sports seasons don’t get any requests for transgender students to play.
The stated goal of the Title IX complaint is to stop all transgender kids from competing in girls’ sports.
Sean Lechner, Briley’s father, said he believed a student assigned male at birth would always have a competitive edge when competing against athletes assigned female at birth.
“It’s not fair, it’s not equal, and it’s not right. It takes every bit of dignity and privacy away from our girls,” Sean Lechner said.
Michigan civil rights law bans discrimination based on gender identity. But, in February, President Donald Trump issued a federal executive order banning trans athletes from girls’ sports.
Kimmerly said the MHSAA, a private non-profit that coordinates Michigan’s school sports, needs state lawmakers to give it more guidance about what to do with the conflicting policies.
“We know that they recognize these issues. We have reinforced over and over again that we have to follow the law. And when there are conflicts in the law, we rely on the Legislature and the courts to provide clarity,” Kimmerly said.
Several Republican state lawmakers and candidates for state and federal office attended Monday’s press conference.
In May, the Republican-led state House of Representatives passed bills to exempt school sports from that anti-gender identity discrimination law.
Package co-sponsor State Representative Rylee Linting (R-Grosse Ile Twp) said the new complaint was about keeping student athletes safe.
“To be clear, this is not about singling out a particular student, this is about calling out the individuals that are allowing this to happen,” Linting said.
The bills have stalled in the Democratic-led state Senate where they’re not likely to see any movement.
Meanwhile, LGBTQ rights advocates say transgender children should have equal chances to play youth sports. They argue zeroing in on one students’ case takes away from their teams’ accomplishments and makes them a target for adults to harass and bully them both online and in person.
The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments over whether trans athletes should be allowed to play in girls’ and women's sports next year.
