A trans college long-distance runner, Evie Parts, is suing the NCAA and Swarthmore College for forcing her off the women’s track team due to her gender identity.

Evie Parts’ removal occurred on the same day the NCAA announced its ban on all trans women from women’s sports. The decision marked its advance compliance with the president’s executive order threatening to persecute any colleges that allow trans female athletes on women’s teams.

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The lawsuit reportedly claims that the ban is illegal since the NCAA is not a government organization and thus cannot supersede Pennsylvania state law (which does not currently include a trans athlete ban) or federal Title IX regulations.

“We stand by the allegations in the complaint,” Parts’ attorney, Susie Cirilli, said in a statement reported by the Associated Press. “As stated in the complaint, the NCAA is a private organization that issued a bigoted policy. Swarthmore College chose to follow that policy and disregard federal and state law.”

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The suit also says athletic director Brad Koch and athletics officials Christina Epps-Chiazor and Valerie Gomez caused Parts to enter “such a depressive state that she engaged in self-harm and in one moment told a friend” she wanted to take her own life.

After the NCAA announced its ban, the officials reportedly told Parts she could either compete as an unattached athlete or as a member of the men’s team. The lawsuit says she was not allowed to wear her Swarthmore uniform at meets or travel with the team and also had to cover her own costs associated with competing. She could not receive medical treatment unless she was part of the men’s team.

In April, she was reportedly allowed back on the women’s team through the end of the year when she graduated.

“We recognize that this is an especially difficult and painful time for members of the transgender community, including student-athletes,” said a statement from Swarthmore. “We worked to support Evie Parts in a time of rapidly evolving guidance, while balancing the ability for other members of the women’s track team to compete in NCAA events. Given the pending litigation, we will not comment any further.”

The board of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) reportedly didn’t consult with its own medical consultants before voting to ban all transgender women from women’s sports earlier this year. Its previous policy allowed trans athletes to compete based on the criteria used by the governing bodies of individual sports.

After the decision, NCAA President Charlie Baker (who is also the former Republican governor of Massachusetts) said the president’s order “provides a clear, national standard… [that] would best serve today’s student-athletes instead of a patchwork of conflicting state laws and court decisions.”

The NCAA covers 1,100 colleges and universities with over 530,000 student-athletes, Baker said, though he estimated that only 10 athletes in the entire association identify as trans, a number accounting for less than 0.002% of NCAA athletes nationwide. 

Earlier this month, another trans student-athlete who filed a similar lawsuit against a private California university and two college athletic associations after her volleyball scholarship was revoked, claiming that both her race and gender identity were turned against her.

If this story affected you, just know you are not alone. The Trans Lifeline Hotline offers support to trans/nonbinary people struggling with mental health from 10 A.M. to 6 P.M. PST Monday-Friday. Call (877) 565-8860 to be connected to a trans/nonbinary peer operator and receive full anonymity and confidentiality. The Trevor Project Lifeline, for LGBTQ+ youth ages 24 and younger, can be reached at (866) 488-7386.

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