President Joe Biden’s Department of Education has dropped a proposed rule change that would have punished schools for preventing trans athletes from competing in women’s sports.
The Department of Education released a filing Friday announcing the withdrawal of the proposal. The Biden administration had proposed the rule change in April 2023. The proposal was titled “Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Sex in Educational Programs or Activities Receiving Federal Financial Assistance: Sex-Related Eligibility Criteria for Men’s and Women’s Athletic Teams” .
The rule would have officially prohibited individual states from banning participation in sports differentiated by gender identity rather than just sex. There are 23 states in the U.S. that have legislation to restrict trans athletes from competing as women in public school sports.
The filing states that the original intent of Biden’s proposal was to “propose a regulatory rule under Title IX that would govern a recipient’s adoption or application of sex-related criteria that would limit or deny a student’s eligibility to participate.” on a men’s or women’s athletic team. consistent with their gender identity.”
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The department says its decision to withdraw comes after hearing testimony during the comment period, but that ongoing lawsuits also influenced the decision.
“The Department recognizes that there are multiple pending lawsuits related to the application of Title IX in the context of gender identity, including lawsuits related to the application of Title IX to athletic eligibility criteria in a variety of factual contexts. In Light of the comments received and those several pending court cases, the Department has decided not to regulate this issue at this time,” the filing reads.
Several states have sued and enacted their own laws to address the issue after the Biden-Harris administration issued a sweeping rule clarifying that Title IX’s ban on “sex” discrimination in schools covers discrimination based on identity. gender, sexual orientation and “pregnancy or related conditions.”
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The administration insisted that the regulation does not address athletic eligibility. However, several experts evidence presented to Pak Gazette Digital in June that would ultimately include more biological males in women’s sports.
In August, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to deny the administration an emergency request to enforce that general rule. The request would have biological men allowed in women’s bathrooms, locker rooms and bedrooms in 10 states where there are state and local rules to prevent it. Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch was the only conservative justice to dissent from that decision.
Democrats have proposed other federal legislation that would allow greater inclusion of transgender people in women’s sports. This history of support became a topic of national backlash during the election cycle, which Republicans and President-elect Donald Trump seized upon as a key campaign issue.
Previous Democratic support for trans inclusion includes Equality Lawwhich was proposed in 2019 and has seen revisions that would “force public schools to allow biologically male athletes who identify as transgender on women’s sports teams.”
In March 2023, Democrats advocated for a transgender bill of rights and proposed a resolution “recognizing that it is the duty of the Federal Government to develop and implement a Transgender Bill of Rights.” The resolution specifically called for a federal law to ensure that biological males can “participate in sports on teams and in programs that best align with their gender identity; [and] use school facilities that best align with their gender identity.”
On the other side of the aisle, Republican Idaho Gov. Brad Little issued an executive order in August to enforce the “Defend Women’s Sports Act,” which would require schools and universities to ban transgender athletes from women’s sports. .
In an exclusive interview with Pak Gazette Digital before the election, Little acknowledged concerns that his executive order could have caused his state’s public schools to lose federal funding if Kamla Harris had become the 47th president.
“We’ll cross that bridge when the time comes,” Little said. “From a national standpoint, there are small radical groups that want to implement changes to the rules we already have. I am confident in what we have and (we will act) aggressively, as the state of Idaho, both legally and legislatively, to protect female athletes and the great strides they have made thanks to Title IX.
But even states with such laws in place to prevent this from happening have had to endure trans athletes sharing fields and locker rooms with girls within their own borders due to interference from liberal federal judges.
Several Obama-era federal judges have approved rulings allowing transgender inclusion in women’s sports. Judges Landya McCafferty of New Hampshire and M. Hannah Lauck of Virginia approved rulings this year that allowed biological males to play on girls’ high school soccer and tennis teams. Both judges were appointed by Obama in the early 2010s.
However, Democrats slowly backtracked on their support for trans inclusion as the year progressed. Several Democrats, including Texas Rep. Collin Allred, walked back their previous support for transgender inclusion in women’s sports.
That trend continued after the election, when Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton spoke out against his party’s stance and actions in allowing the inclusion of transgender people in multiple interviews, sparking a fierce backlash and even a demonstration. mass in favor of transgender people in front of his office.
Now, in the final weeks of the Biden administration, he has also issued a major surrender on the issue as the party continues to debate what its stance will be going forward.
