The families of three female high school runners filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday seeking to block transgender athletes in Connecticut from participating in girls’ sports.

Selina Soule, a senior at Glastonbury high school, Chelsea Mitchell, a senior at Canton high school, and Alanna Smith, a sophomore at Danbury high school, are represented by the conservative not-for-profit organization Alliance Defending Freedom. They argue that allowing trans athletes to compete has deprived them of track titles and scholarship opportunities.

“Mentally and physically, we know the outcome before the race even starts,” said Smith, who is the daughter of the former Major League pitcher Lee Smith. “That biological unfairness doesn’t go away because of what someone believes about gender identity. All girls deserve the chance to compete on a level playing field.”

The lawsuit centers on two trans sprinters, Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood, who have frequently outperformed their cisgender competitors.

Yearwood, a senior at Cromwell high school, and Miller, a senior at Bloomfield high school, issued statements vehemently defending their right to run in girls’ events.

“I have faced discrimination in every aspect of my life and I no longer want to remain silent,” Miller said. “I am a girl and I am a runner. I participate in athletics just like my peers to excel, find community, and meaning in my life. It is both unfair and painful that my victories have to be attacked and my hard work ignored.”

Yearwood said she had been hurt by the efforts to “tear down my successes”.

“I will never stop being me!” she said in her statement. “I will never stop running! I hope that the next generation of trans youth doesn’t have to fight the fights that I have. I hope they can be celebrated when they succeed not demonized. For the next generation, I run for you!”

The lawsuit was filed against the Connecticut Association of Schools-Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference and the boards of education in Bloomfield, Cromwell, Glastonbury, Canton and Danbury.

Terry Miller, second from left, wins the final of the 55-meter dash over Andraya Yearwood, far left, and other runners in the Connecticut girls Class S indoor track meet at Hillhouse high school in New Haven. Photograph: Pat Eaton-Robb/AP

“Forcing girls to be spectators in their own sports is completely at odds with Title IX, a federal law designed to create equal opportunities for women in education and athletics,” the attorney Christiana Holcomb said. “Connecticut’s policy violates that law and reverses nearly 50 years of advances for women.”

The Connecticut Association of Schools-Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference says its policy follows a state anti-discrimination law that says students must be treated in school by the gender with which they identify and the group believes the policy is “appropriate under both state and federal law”.

Miller and Andraya have combined to win 15 girls’ state indoor or outdoor championship races since 2017, according to the lawsuit.

The three plaintiffs have competed directly against them, almost always losing to Miller and usually behind Yearwood. Mitchell finished third in the 2019 state championship in the girls’ 55-meter indoor track competition, behind Miller and Yearwood.

“Our dream is not to come in second or third place, but to win fair and square,” Mitchell said. “All we’re asking for is a fair chance.”

The American Civil Liberties Union said it would represent the trans teens and defend the Connecticut policy in court. The attorney Chase Strangio, deputy director for Trans Justice with the ACLU LGBT & HIV Project, said trans girls also were protected by Title IX.

“The idea that the law only protects the individuals with XX chromosomes as compared to individuals with XY chromosomes is found nowhere in the legislative history of Title IX, in any implementing regulation or in any other aspect of the interpretation of Title IX over the last 50 years by the courts,” he said.

The attorneys for Alliance Defending Freedom are asking the court to prevent the trans girls from competing while the lawsuit moves forward. No hearing date on that request had been scheduled on Wednesday, the day before the state’s indoor track championships begin.

Connecticut is one of 17 states that allowed trans high school athletes to compete without restrictions in 2019, according to Transathlete.com, which tracks state policies in high school sports across the country. Eight states had restrictions that make it difficult for trans athletes to compete while in school by requiring athletes to compete under the gender on their birth certificates or allowing them to participate only after going through sex reassignment procedures or hormone therapies, according to Transathlete.

Yearwood and Miller have said they are still in the process of transitioning but have declined to provide details.