Suing her school was not how Evelyn Parts envisioned her final semester at Swarthmore College. Parts, 22, a distance runner and team captain of the school’s varsity cross country and track team, set big goals for senior year. The Towson, Maryland native had qualified for the 5,000 meters in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)’s Division III Centennial Conference Championship for Women’s Indoor Track & Field set for last March in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. For her, it was the biggest competition of the season.
But she was never given a chance to run. Parts, who goes by Evie, was banned from competing with her team because she is a transgender woman.
Parts’s life was upended in February when President Trump signed an executive order prohibiting transgender women from competing in women’s athletics. The NCAA quickly followed suit, banning the fewer than 10 trans collegiate athletes from competing with the teams that align with their gender identity. Parts was one of those few denied an opportunity she had earned.
Days after the order was signed, Parts claims Swarthmore officials informed her that she could no longer represent the school in competitions. If she still wanted to compete in the March Centennial, she says in the suit that she was told she would have to either race with the men’s team, or enter races independently, which implies paying around a $40 fee. She could no longer board the team bus, eat team meals, or receive coaching or treatment from trainers if she chose the latter option, she claims.
Still, Parts wanted to run. Prohibited from wearing the Swarthmore uniform, she donned a custom singlet: pink, white, and blue, the colors of the trans flag. “Evie’s Track Club,” it read. The pastels stood out against a sea of red, blue, and black uniforms. But her effort only got her so far — some competitions were closed to unattached runners. When the starter’s gun went off at the big March Centennial Conference meet, she could only cheer from the sidelines.
So, Parts is taking action. On August 14, she filed a federal lawsuit against the NCAA and Swarthmore College.
The suit, filed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, alleges that Swarthmore violated her Title IX rights by banning her from the track team because she is a transgender woman. Parts, who says in the suit that she entered “such a depressive state” that she experienced suicidal thoughts from the trauma of her exclusion, seeks damages for emotional distress and civil conspiracy. Her filing comes after Rochester Institute of Technology’s Sadie Schreiner, another transgender runner, recently sued Princeton University, claiming she was illegally removed from a school-hosted track meet.
Her exclusion and the lawsuit itself made Parts’s life much more complicated. She just wanted to enjoy her final year at school.
“There’s so much on my mind that nobody else has to think about,” Parts tells Teen Vogue about the ordeal. “This is not fair that I’m having to think about this. Everybody else is thinking about race strategy, and I’m thinking about whether I’ll be able to race.”
All because she wanted to continue participating in the sport she loves.
"Evie Parts is a woman who loves to engage in competitive long-distance running,” said her attorney, Susan M. Cirilli (who is also representing Schreiner), in the lawsuit. "Swarthmore College chose to follow the NCAA and disregard federal and state law when it implemented a policy that segregated Evie from her teammates and treated her as if she was not worthy of inter alia the food, medical care and transportation offered to other women varsity athletes."
Swarthmore said it was only complying with federal policy. In a statement posted to its website and emailed to Teen Vogue, the school said it "deeply values our transgender community members."
"We recognize that this is an especially difficult and painful time for members of the transgender community, including student-athletes," the statement said. "We worked to support this alumna [Evie Parts] in a time of rapidly evolving guidance, while balancing the ability for other members of the women's track team to compete in NCAA events.”
Parts, an avid runner even before she transitioned in high school, had found running a safe space for her to explore who she is. A solid middle-of-the-pack runner, she did not dominate college competitions. But being part of the team made school feel like home.
“Being on the women’s team is a very affirming thing for her,” Lauren Lovingood, Parts’s girlfriend, said. “The team allows her to participate in society in a way that aligns with who she is.”
Teammate Morgan Mouer remembered the moment when the team was told Parts had been banned. Expressions hardened. Fists clenched. “Underclassmen were coming to me asking what they could do, which speaks to how much we all love Evie,” said Mouer.
Parts says her mental health eroded during this time, leading to panic attacks, depression, and suicidal ideation.
Discussing an outdoor 10,000 meter race, Parts said, “When I finished [racing], I started crying because I was emotionally and physically exhausted.” That day, she was anxious, “way more anxious than I normally am to race, because I was worried I would get to the line, and they’d be like ‘sorry, you can’t run.’”
Perhaps legal justice can help Parts heal, but she is more motivated by the thought of helping other trans athletes get back to the sports they love. She wants them to feel protected.
Parts lives by her sibling Winter Parts’s words: “If something comes up in public, I don’t shy away from it. I say, ‘You should support trans people in sport. Here’s why.’”
