Two boys who identify as transgender girls appeared on MSNBC Sunday night, where guest host Paola Ramos praised them for their “extremely courageous” stand after they complained about President Donald Trump’s efforts to prohibit men from competing in women’s sports.
Trump signed an executive order Feb. 5 that directed federal agencies to pull funding from schools that fail to “take all appropriate action to affirmatively protect all-female athletic opportunities and all-female locker rooms.” Attorney Chris Erchull, who is representing the boys in a lawsuit challenging Trump’s order, claimed during the segment that the two boys were no different than other girls who played sports.
“Transgender girls play both sports for the same reasons as any other students. Sports are essential to education,” Erchull told Ramos, the daughter of Univision news anchor Jorge Ramos, who was guest hosting “Ayman.” “For so many young people, sports is where they develop life skills like leadership, teamwork, self-discipline, confidence. These are skills that Parker and Iris are going to need when they’re adults.”
Prior to Erchull’s comments, teenagers Parker Tirell and Iris Turmelle, who sued to block Trump’s executive order Wednesday after previously challenging New Hampshire’s ban on biological boys competing against girls, spoke with Ramos about their reasoning behind the legal actions.
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“It pretty much means the world to me. I’ve been playing [soccer] for 12 years. It’s just really important,” Tirrell told Ramos, who asked, “For you, Parker, what was — what’s the sort of motivation behind this lawsuit? What does that mean to you?”
“The motivation behind it was just me wanting to continue to do one of the things that I love most in my life,” Tirell claimed.
Throughout his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump said he supported banning biological men from competing in women’s sports, notably saying he would “just ban it” during an Oct. 16 town hall moderated by Fox News host Harris Faulkner.
“I would not be able to try out for tennis, for track and field,” Turmelle said. “I would not be able to try new things. I would be stuck doing things that I might necessarily not like the next year. I could be stuck in the same thing over and over.”
The executive order Trump signed on Feb. 5 aims to require transgender identifying individuals to participate on sports teams that align with their sex rather than their preferred gender.
Erchull attacked Trump over both the executive order involving women’s sports and his Jan. 20 executive order declaring that sex was “not changeable.”
“The current administration has launched a targeted and sustained attack aimed at making it impossible for transgender people to function in society. It’s employment, it’s housing, it’s travel, medical care, education,” Erchull told Ramos. “What we’ve seen in the last four weeks since the inauguration has been dehumanizing, and it’s been chilling. And the targeting of vulnerable transgender children is just beyond the pale. I’m so grateful and I’m so proud that Parker and Iris are willing to stand up and fight for their rights.”
Ramos then singled out one of the biological boys for praise.
“What you’re doing is extremely courageous, there’s a lot of other trans girls that are observing what you both are doing and that are paying attention,” Ramos told Turmelle. “Some may feel scared, others are feeling inspired.”
The issue of males who identify as transgender competing in women’s sports garnered national attention following Lia Thomas’s participation in the 2022 NCAA championships, where the biological male won the 500-yard women’s final. Many athletes have since cited concerns about the safety of women when competing against biological men.
“Many sport-specific governing bodies have no official position or requirements regarding trans-identifying athletes,” Trump’s Feb. 5 executive order says. “Others allow men to compete in women’s categories if these men reduce the testosterone in their bodies below certain levels or provide documentation of ‘sincerely held’ gender identity. These policies are unfair to female athletes and do not protect female safety.”
Multiple college teams elected to forfeit matches against San Jose State University’s women’s volleyball team in 2024 due to the presence of a male on the San Jose State roster, according to the Los Angeles Times. The transgender player spiked a ball into the face of a San Diego State University player during an Oct. 10 match, the New York Post reported.
North Carolina high school volleyball player Payton McNabb also suffered a career-ending concussion when a male opponent’s spike hit her in the face in a similar play during a September 2022 volleyball match. She described her ongoing medical symptoms in legislative testimony given in April 2023.
Trump also signed an executive order regarding child sex change procedures on Jan. 28, calling it “a stain on our Nation’s history.”
“Countless children soon regret that they have been mutilated and begin to grasp the horrifying tragedy that they will never be able to conceive children of their own or nurture their children through breastfeeding,” Trump wrote. “Moreover, these vulnerable youths’ medical bills may rise throughout their lifetimes, as they are often trapped with lifelong medical complications, a losing war with their own bodies, and, tragically, sterilization.”
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