“Today’s ruling is a critical victory for fairness, equality, and inclusion” Joshua Block, a lawyer for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, said in a statement."This critical victory strikes at the heart of political attacks against transgender youth while helping ensure every young person has the right to play.”Transgender athletes' ability to compete in sports is the subject of a continuing national debate.“And that means fair and equal quality of competition, and that just does not happen when you’re forced to compete against biological males in their sports.”Kiefer added, “The vast majority of the American public recognizes that in order to have fair sports, we have to protect the female category, and I think you’re seeing that trend increasingly with states across the country passing laws to protect women’s sports.This is certainly not the end of the road in the fight for fairness for female athletes.”The plaintiffs sought injunctions to bar enforcement of the state policy on transgender athletes and to remove records set by transgender athletes from the books, as well as money damages.In arguments before a federal judge in Connecticut in February 2021, Roger Brooks, another lawyer for the Alliance Defending Freedom, said Title IX guarantees girls “equal quality” of competition, which he said is denied by having to race people with what he described as inherent physiological advantages."