Trans track star Sadie Schreiner sues Princeton after being banned from women’s race
Trans track star Sadie Schreiner has sued Princeton University (Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Trans track star Sadie Schreiner has sued Princeton University (Photo by Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Transgender athlete Sadie Schreiner has reportedly sued Princeton University after she was allegedly barred from running in a track meet ’15 minutes prior’ to the race.
The former Rochester Institute of Technology sprinter, and prominent figure on Trump’s battleground against transgender athletes, has reportedly sued Princeton University and sports faculty staff, alleging that her rights under New Jersey’s Law Against Discrimination were violated.
As reported by Outsports, the suit, which was filed on 14 July, centres on Sadie Schreiner being barred from competing in the final heat of Princeton’s Larry Ellis Invitational event this year. Princeton’s athletics website places the event in May.
According to the filing, Schreiner was originally on the list for the 200-meter race, but was removed by Princeton Athletics Director John Mack.
Outsports reports that the suit alleges that Mack and Kimberly Keenan-Kirkpatrick (Director of Track Operations) had knowledge that Schreiner was trans and in turn disqualified her in violation of state law.
The suit reportedly claims: “The actions of the two Princeton officials were in blatant and willful disregard of Sadie’s rights based on Sadie’s rights as a transgender woman under controlling New Jersey law, thereby causing Sadie Shreiner to foreseeable emotional and physical harm.”
Schreiner’s attorney Susan Cirilli told Outsports: “Gender identity and expression is a protected status under the NJLAD. As included in the complaint, it is unlawful discrimination for any person to aid, abet, incite, compel or coerce the doing of any acts forbidden under the NJLAD.”
PinkNews has reached out to both Mack and Keenan-Kirkpatrick for comment.
Schreiner, who earned a third-place finish and All-American honors at the 2024 NCAA Division III track and field championships, spoke out in March this year against President Donald Trump’s bans on trans athletes, including an executive order titled “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports”. The order prevents trans women from competing in female categories of sports – a move Republicans claim restores “fairness.”
The NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) barred trans women from female competitions after Trump’s order in February.
Schreiner previously explained that her biology is “fundamentally different” to a cis male’s, as reported by CNN: “(The hormone therapy) shrank my ligaments. It’s made me shorter. It’s made me weaker. It’s lessened my muscles. It’s redistributing my fat. It’s lowered my lung capacity.”
Share your thoughts! Let us know in the comments below, and remember to keep the conversation respectful.
