CONCORD, N.H.: Parker Tirrell, 16, enjoys her art classes, scrolling on TikTok and working at her new job at a pet store. But most of all, the transgender teen loves playing soccer.

Until last year, that wasn’t a problem.

“I was just living my life like any normal person,” said Tirrell, who has played since she was 4. “I was accepted. I had a nice, steady team that I played on all the time.”

Then came a cascade of obstacles, starting with a state ban on transgender girls in girls’ sports, and most recently President Donald Trump’s Feb. 5 executive order, “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.”

Now, life is anything but normal. Tirrell, along with Iris Turmelle, 15, another transgender girl, are the first to challenge Trump’s order, six months after suing their own state over its ban and getting a court order allowing them to play.

“I just feel like I’m being singled out right now by lawmakers and Trump and just the whole legislative system for something that I can’t control,” Tirrell told The Associated Press in an interview. “It just doesn’t feel great. It’s not great. It feels like they just don’t want me to exist. But I’m not going to stop existing just because they don’t want me to.”

Transgender people represent a very small part of the nation’s youth population – about 1.4% of teens ages 13 to 17, about 300,000 people.

Turmelle, who likes trying different sports, described the past couple of years as stressful, difficult, annoying and overwhelming — “so many laws targeting you and your community for who you are and what you stand for and just your identity.”

One message she hopes to get across to others is “that we are human.”

“We don’t go to sleep in the day and go out at night and drink people’s blood. We don’t hate sunlight. We’re human, just like you.”

Supporters of the ban say it’s about fairness and safety

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