The agency is expected to unveil further rules this spring that will expressly cover how Title IX applies to transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.
The group of lawyers, subject-matter experts, parents, civil rights organizations, and former education officials claimed in their Feb. 21 letter that the Biden administration’s additional anticipated regulations will “unfairly” penalize female athletes. The groups signed onto a letter written by the Defense of Freedom Institute, addressed to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona.
The coalition argues that the Department’s planned regulation will unfairly and unjustly punish female student-athletes at all phases of their athletic aspirations based on the Department’s existing, illegal interpretation of Section IX.
“The Department does not have the legal authority to issue regulations that would subvert rather than fulfill the requirements of Title IX by permitting or requiring biological males who identify as females to compete in sex-separated women’s sports and to use the intimate facilities and shared spaces of female students … we anticipate that the coming rulemaking on athletics will similarly conflate gender identity with Title IX’s sex-based protections and degrade those very protections,” the groups wrote in their letter.
“The Department’s view that Title IX extends to gender identity is an extremist position not supported by the purpose, text, structure, or legislative history of Title IX.
“More importantly, if the administration proceeds with its radical re-rewrite of Title IX, it will result in severe harm to biological women and girls and cause them to lose positions on athletic teams, awards, scholarships, and prizes, as well as risk bodily harm in certain sports.”
Officials from groups such as The Heritage Foundation, Child & Parental Rights Campaign, Eagle Forum, Southeastern Legal Foundation, Family Research Council, American Civil Rights Project, Child Protection League, and the National Association of Scholars all signed their support for the letter, among others.
The athletes claim this is due to the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference’s decision to implement a policy of allowing males, who identify as females, to compete in female sporting events.
Christiana Kiefer, a senior counsel at ADF said they were pleased to hear that the 2nd Circuit has decided to rehear the case, and urged that the court “protect women’s athletic opportunities.”
The legal team said that 18 states have some laws to protect women and girls from competing with males, and polling data indicates that the majority of Americans agree that the competition is no longer fair if males are permitted to compete.
The Department of Education did not immediately respond to The Epoch Times’s request for comment.
