President Joe Biden is proposing a new interpretation of Title IX that would prohibit schools from “categorically” denying the ability of transgender athletes to compete against biological girls.
The new rule says that there has to be a weighing of fairness in competition and schools need to ensure that children are safe, but they cannot outright deny a male who is under the impression that he is a female from competing in female competition in K-12 and colleges across the country.
The Alaska State Board of Education has called for school districts to keep male and female competition separate in the traditional categories, since males have physical advantages over females in most athletic competitions. Already in Alaska, boys have begun to compete and win against girls in track in high school.
A related case has made its way to the Supreme Court to decide if males can compete in the female categories. That case moved on Thursday at the same time the Biden Administration made its Title IX announcement. The court said a transgender runner in West Virginia could continue to compete while his case was being heard by the court.
Title IX was signed into law in 1972, after well-documented support by Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens. It has advanced educational opportunities for girls and women since then by prohibiting schools that receive federal funding from favoring the funding of male athletics programs at the expense of female athletics.
Today, the U.S. Department of Education said its new interpretation will dictate how coaches must treat transgenders.
The new rule will be published in the Federal Register and go through a 30-day public comment period before it is final.
“Participation in school athletics is an important component of education and provides valuable physical, social, academic, and mental health benefits to students. The proposed rule affirms that students benefit from the chance to join a school sports team to learn about teamwork, leadership, and physical fitness. The proposed rule would establish that policies violate Title IX when they categorically ban transgender students from participating on sports teams consistent with their gender identity just because of who they are. The proposed rule also recognizes that in some instances, particularly in competitive high school and college athletic environments, some schools may adopt policies that limit transgender students’ participation. The proposed rule would provide schools with a framework for developing eligibility criteria that protects students from being denied equal athletic opportunity, while giving schools the flexibility to develop their own participation policies,” the U.S. Department of Education wrote in its explanation.
“Every student should be able to have the full experience of attending school in America, including participating in athletics, free from discrimination. Being on a sports team is an important part of the school experience for students of all ages,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “Beyond all the benefits to physical and mental health, playing on a team teaches students how to work hard, get along with others, believe in themselves, and build healthy habits that last a lifetime. Today’s proposed rule is designed to support Title IX’s protection for equal athletics opportunity. We welcome and encourage public comment on the proposed regulation and will continue working to ensure Title IX’s effective protection for all students.”
“Under the proposed regulation, schools would not be permitted to adopt or apply a one-size-fits-all policy that categorically bans transgender students from participating on teams consistent with their gender identity,” the Biden Administration said. The decisions about which team a boy would play on must consider fairness and preventing injury, a description that is almost sure to bring a multitude of lawsuits against school districts.
“Instead, the Department’s approach would allow schools flexibility to develop team eligibility criteria that serve important educational objectives, such as ensuring fairness in competition or preventing sports-related injury. These criteria would have to account for the sport, level of competition, and grade or education level to which they apply. These criteria could not be premised on disapproval of transgender students or a desire to harm a particular student. “The criteria also would have to minimize harms to students whose opportunity to participate on a male or female team consistent with their gender identity would be limited or denied.”
The new rule goes on to say, “One-size-fits-all policies that categorically ban transgender students from participating in athletics consistent with their gender identity across all sports, age groups, and levels of competition would not satisfy the proposed regulation. Such bans fail to account for differences among students across grade and education levels. They also fail to account for different levels of competition—including no-cut teams that let all students participate—and different types of sports.”
Taking those considerations into account, the Department said that, under its proposed regulation, elementary school students would generally be able to participate on school sports teams consistent with their gender identity and that it would be particularly difficult for a school to justify excluding students immediately following elementary school from participating consistent with their gender identity.
For older students, especially at the high school and college level, the Department expects that sex-related criteria that limit participation of some transgender students may be permitted, in some cases, when they enable the school to achieve an important educational objective, such as fairness in competition, and meet the proposed regulation’s other requirements.
Schools would have to take into account the following considerations when developing a policy for participation:
“Students in different grades and education levels have different levels of athletic skill, and schools offer sports teams for different reasons depending on students’ grade or education level. For example, teams for younger students often focus on building teamwork, fitness, and basic skills for students who are just learning about the sport, while a collegiate team may be primarily focused on competitive success. That’s one reason why the Department expects that, under its proposed regulation, elementary school students would generally be able to participate on school sports teams consistent with their gender identity where considerations may be different for competitive high school and college teams,” the department wrote.
Especially for students in earlier grades, including for example those in elementary school, school athletic teams “focus on introducing students to new activities and prioritize team sports as an opportunity for students to learn basic skills in physical fitness, leadership, and teamwork,” the government said.
“School teams vary widely across the United States, with some that are very competitive, especially for high school and college students with advanced skills, and others, such as “no cut” teams, that allow all students to join and participate. Some schools also offer teams at lower levels of competition, such as intramural or junior varsity teams, that allow all or most interested students to participate. Sex-related eligibility criteria that restrict students from participating consistent with their gender identity would have to reflect these differences in competition,” the Biden Administration said.
The proposed regulation’s text:
The proposed regulation would be in the Title IX regulations at section 106.41(b)(2):
If a recipient adopts or applies sex-related criteria that would limit or deny a student’s eligibility to participate on a male or female team consistent with their gender identity, such criteria must, for each sport, level of competition, and grade or education level: (i) be substantially related to the achievement of an important educational objective, and (ii) minimize harms to students whose opportunity to participate on a male or female team consistent with their gender identity would be limited or denied.
Can we please understand that transgender male-to-females are NOT female? This satanic stupidity is seriously past the point of rationality and must stop NOW. Enough – this isn’t fair, it isn’t “woke”, it isn’t even a good way to deal with psychological issues – it is just plain evil, and creates multiple classes of people who must each be specially privileged by the government at the expense of others. Enough.
Nobody hates women as much as progressives do. Especially progressive white women.
If I glue feathers to my body, I will be a trans-chicken.
A trans-chicken is a real chicken!
I’m going to start claiming discrimination based on my trans-gay nature.
I was just born that way!
Yes we all should do the same.
They can do anything they want in their indoctrination centers they call schools. It’s like Walmart making regulations concerning their employees and how customers should behave within their stores. These corporations calling themselves governments are no different. They have no sovereign powers outside their establishments, 22 USCA 286e. And if you think these governing agencies are not incorporated, look up their file numbers and DUNs numbers. Business as usual, and they think we are their property because we unknowingly agreed to it all and we gave our children over to them as State/STATE property. They see us as “residents”, MUNICIPAL CITIZENS of MUNICIPAL CORPORATIONS, franchises, sureties for their debts. We agreed to it all. .
Since when does the President have the ability to change laws? He can propose whatever, but Congress makes laws.
If a student decides to “identify” (read: pretend) to be another sex, they have not become that sex. Until the term “identify” is legally defined and bound, this change makes no sense legally.
Are we now governed by petulant children? Time for a change.
100% agree
Here is a question for you: can a school then just have one set of sports teams. ( i.e. one volleyball team, one swimming team, one football team, one softball team, one basketball team and whoever makes the team – makes the team. No more separate sports? This seems like it would meet title 9 by offering equal opportunity. (Not fair to all but equal opportunity for all) what a giant step backwards for women.
Unfortunately this nation has lost its mind and is cow towing to 1/10th of 1% of the population. Unfortunately ALL females need to not show up for any sport. Female being a person born with boobs and a vagina, not installed after birth. It’s all sickening. This president is a sick individual not fit for office or humanity.
Maybe get them (born with boobs and a vagina, installed after birth) some training with assault weapons, eh Doug? Heheh!
That sounds good bill, since the 2nd amendment applies to all and a little extra training is fun and makes for a safer shooter. But they still have no place in women’s sports.
Just your opinion Paul without any back-up, as usual.
The experts in “track and field” have weighed in on this issue with their rules allowing them to compete in women’s sports if their change is prior to puberty, thus removing the gender bias men have over women in these sports.
That’s the science based idea Paul-what’s your idea based on? Heheh!
My ideas predate science. In fact they go back to when God created Adam and Eve (gasp!). Men and women are created different from each other but also to work together as a team. So stop your trolling and put up a GOOD argument, not just an argument.
And besides, the fact that the 2nd amendment applies to all citizens is not my opinion. It’s a Constitutional fact.
100% agree
I’m so old that I remember when female genetalia mutilation was generally considered abhorant. Look how far we come – all the back to the Dark Ages. Thanks to the progressives.
The women need to hold sporting events that are private and they can say who is competing. They don’t need the schools or sanctioning bodies to hold a sport event. They can start a new trend and have new records to break leaving out the unfair males who can’t make it as a man.
Drop all sports from school affiliations. Then stand up private sports leagues that have their own internal regulations. Gets us out from under big gov and allows parents to pick and chose the leagues that best suit their child’s needs.
Wasn’t the whole purpose of Title XI to ensure that girls have the same opportunities to compete in sports that boys have? I guess team Biden doesn’t care about that, as they must pray and make sacrifices at the LGBTQ+ alter.
If this keeps up, the only girls competing in girls sports will be the 1-2% who are gifted enough to compete with trans boys. A good percentage of these girls will identify as boys, but still may opt to compete as girls for improved competitive opportunities.
So let me get this right, the trans boys who identify as girls can compete as girls and improve their competitive opportunities. The trans girls who identify as boys can compete as girls to maintain some shred of competitive opportunity.
So when Supreme Court Judge KJB was asked if she could define a woman, she would have been spot on to say, “I’m not a biologist, but a woman is a person who does not compete in men’s sports. Of course, in the construct of today’s socio-political pressures, the converse is no longer applicable. So, the question should be, how do we define women’s sports moving forward. Basically, it will be transmen’s sports, as the number of biological women competing will be deminimus.” 🙂
If they are going to persist in this nonsense, that’s easy to fix. They should have sports events for “trans boys” only to participate in separate from the women’s sports.
It’s the end of women’s sports.
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