The National Collegiate Athletic Association's logo. (Credit to NCAA.com)
On Thursday, former Swarthmore track and field athlete Evelyn Parts sued Swarthmore College, athletic department officials and the NCAA, claiming they discriminated against her because she is a transgender woman.
Parts' lawsuit claims that the defendants violated her Title IX rights, inflicted emotional distress and engaged in a civil conspiracy.
On Feb. 5 – which was also National Girls and Women in Sports Day – President Donald Trump signed an executive order authorizing federal agencies to penalize schools that allowed transgender girls and women to compete in girls' and women's sports.
The next day, the NCAA banned transgender women from competing in women's sports altogether, with NCAA president Charlie Baker saying the executive order "provides a clear, national standard."
"We stand by the allegations in the complaint," Parts' attorney, Susan Cirilli, told ESPN. "The NCAA is a private organization that issued a bigoted policy. Swarthmore chose to follow that policy and disregard federal and state law."
Before the executive order, the NCAA had allowed transgender women to compete in women's sports as long as they met requirements specific to each sport.
The lawsuit stated that Parts transitioned as a high school junior. Although she enrolled at Swarthmore in the fall of 2020 and joined the women's cross country and track teams, she did not compete until 2023 due to COVID-19 cancellations and gender-affirmation surgery recovery.
According to the lawsuit, Parts competed for Swarthmore, a Division III school, beginning in 2023 and was named a captain of the women's track and field team in the fall of 2024.
After the NCAA's policy change, Swarthmore told Parts she had two options if she wished to continue competing: either compete in men's competition, or compete unattached to Swarthmore College.
Parts chose to compete unattached. As a result, the lawsuit said she was barred from receiving coaching, travel, financial support or medical support from Swarthmore.
She competed in two meets unattached before she was reinstated to the women's track and field team on April 11. After that, she competed in three meets, placing 13th in the 3,000-meter steeplechase and 12th in the 10,000 meters at the Centennial Conference championships.
This is the latest lawsuit in a string of recent complaints from both sides about NCAA eligibility guidelines.
Another transgender runner sued Princeton University last month, claiming the school illegally removed her from a race due to her gender identity.
Former swimmers at the University of Pennsylvania are suing Penn, Harvard, the Ivy League and the NCAA for allowing Lia Thomas to compete in the 2022 Women's Ivy League Swimming and Diving Championships.
The lawsuits also don't just pertain to college.
On Aug. 1, a federal judge dismissed a case filed by a Bucks County student who claims she was forced to compete against a transgender athlete. Notably, that judge works in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the same district where Parts filed her lawsuit against Swarthmore and the NCAA.
The national conversation around transgender athletes' participation in sports will undoubtedly continue, but thanks to Parts' lawsuit, it is now local to Delaware County as well.
Especially since Parts' case has already made national headlines, Delco, the first Philadelphia suburban county to explicitly declare itself a safe space for LGBTQ+ community members, may actually find itself at the forefront of the discussion.
