At long last, the federal government has weighed in on the phenomenon of biological males who identify as females being allowed by schools and universities nationwide to compete as such in sports.
Last week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a Statement of Interest in support of a trio of female school-athletes and their parents suing the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) over its policy that allows biological males who identify as transgender girls to displace actual women on teams and in competitions.
Defendants also include the Connecticut Association of Schools, Bloomfield Public Schools board of education, Cromwell Public Schools board and Glastonbury Public Schools board.
“In our pluralistic society we generally try to accommodate how individuals desire to live their lives up to the point where those desires impinge on the other people’s rights,” said Attorney General William Barr, according to the filing.
The statement continues:
Allowing biological males to compete in all-female sports deprives women of the opportunity to participate fully and fairly in sports and is fundamentally unfair to female athletes. Sports are an important part of education and character development and provide an arena where individual discipline can result in achievement and recognition. The purpose of all-female athletics is to ensure that women have an equal opportunity to participate, compete and excel in this important part of life. Title IX has been a major step forward in the long fight to achieve this equality. As reflected in Title IX, the basis for single-sex athletics, is rooted in the reality of biological differences between the sexes. Clearly then, eligibility to participate on a single-sex team must be based on objective biological fact. Girls should not be forced, through the dismantling of Title IX, to be sidelined in their own sports.
Although CIAC has claimed that federal law forces schools to allow biological males to compete in girls’ sports, the DOJ statement argued that that is not the case.
“They are incorrect. Title IX and its implementing regulations prohibit discrimination solely ‘on the basis of sex,’ not on the basis of transgender status, and therefore neither require nor authorize [the state’s] transgender policy,” reads a section of the statement, filed on behalf of Barr, U.S. Attorney John Durham, and officials with the department’s civil rights division.
“The [state] policy also illustrates why this court should not read Title IX to compel schools to require students to participate on sex-specific teams solely on the basis of their gender identity. Even if the term ‘sex’ is somehow ambiguous, if ‘only one of the permissible meanings’ of an allegedly ambiguous term ‘produces a substantive effect that is compatible with the rest of the law,’ this court should adopt it because the judiciary ‘cannot interpret federal statutes to negate their own stated purposes.’ … Reading Title IX to compel schools to require biological males to compete against biological females in athletic competitions is precisely the type of interpretation that this court should reject on this ground.”
“Far from being required by Title IX, CIAC’s transgender policy is in tension with ‘the core of Title IX’s purpose’ – namely, ensuring that women have an ‘equal opportunity to participate’ in educational programs and activities,” the statement continues. “Many of Title IX’s implementing regulations – which permit sex-specific athletic teams, bathrooms, locker rooms, or shower facilities – would be in jeopardy if CIAC’s view of sex discrimination were to carry the day.”
The statement also signaled that the Supreme Court “has recognized that sex-based classifications sometimes are permissible because certain ‘differences between men and women’ are ‘enduring.'”
Amen!! These girls are being robbed of countless opportunities, and all while society cheers for “equality.” This is exactly the kind of biology-affirming, common-sense approach that must prevail. This is justice.
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