(Bloomberg) -- An aspiring middle school golfer sued over a recent Tennessee ban on students joining sports teams that don't align with the gender on their birth certificate -- the latest challenge to dozens of state laws that impose limits on transgender children in the U.S.
The suit on behalf of a 14-year-old “avid golfer” who wants to join a boy's golf team at his school was filed Thursday in federal court in Nashville by the American Civil Liberties Union and Lambda Legal, the groups said in a statement. The complaint alleges the ban stigmatizes boys and girls who are already alienated and would benefit socially from team sports.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, a Republican, said on Twitter in March, when he signed the law, that it was needed to “preserve women's athletics and ensure fair competition.” The statute applies to boys and girls.
“To have the legislature pass a law that singled out me and kids like me to keep us from being part of a team, that crushed me -- it hurt very much,” Luc Esquivel, a 14-year-old freshman at Farragut High School in Knoxville, said in a statement.
The lawsuit is at least the fourth filed in two years over bans on trans kids participating in school sports, with earlier suits filed in Idaho, West Virginia and Florida. At least nine states have passed such laws. Idaho's ban was temporarily put on hold by a federal judge in July. Texas Governor Greg Abbott became the latest to sign a similar law in October.
Republican-led states have also been challenged over laws restricting bathroom use and banning trans kids from transgender surgery.
Civil rights groups argue the state laws are being cooked up to promote the culture war and don't address any real concerns put forth by schools are parents. The groups said that before the law, Tennessee's school athletic associations “reported no issues with their inclusive policies.”
Lee's press office didn't immediately respond to a message seeking comment.
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