WASHINGTON, D.C. – Independent Women’s Law Center (IWLC) and Independent Women’s Forum (IWF) yesterday filed a formal comment with the Department of Education opposing the Biden administration’s plan to gut Title IX by allowing biological males to compete in women’s sports. Independent Women’s Voice, IWF’s c4 sister organization, drove more than 20,000 public comments to the Department opposing the proposed new Title IX rules.
Title IX, the landmark civil rights law passed by Congress in 1972, guarantees equal educational opportunity for both sexes. Long-standing Title IX regulations explicitly allow schools to offer single-sex teams, while requiring that they provide equal athletic opportunities to members of “both sexes.” Under the Biden administration’s proposal, schools would no longer be permitted to offer single-sex teams unless they can justify their reasons for doing so to the Department of Education.
A school that is unable to prove, to the satisfaction of Department bureaucrats, that allowing a biological male to compete on a specific women’s team would compromise fairness or safety in that particular sport risks being charged with unlawful discrimination. As IWLC and IWF explain in their comment, schools with limited budgets and resources are unlikely to embrace this fight, and many will likely allow all students to compete on athletic teams consistent with their gender identity in order to avoid investigation or legal trouble.
Jennifer C. Braceras, director of Independent Women’s Law Center, said: “In practice, it is only female athletes who bear the burden of this policy, as few males will lose roster spots or playing time to biological females who identify as men.”
Riley Gaines, Independent Women’s Forum spokeswoman, said, “The Department’s proposed rule is based on the faulty premise that it is possible to level the playing field when men compete against women. The truth is that, in most sports, this is not possible. But even if it were, we must always remember that Title IX is an equal opportunity law, and allowing biological males to take roster spots or playing time from female athletes makes a mockery of that objective.”
The comment can be found HERE.
###
Independent Women’s Law Center advocates for equal opportunity, individual liberty, and the continued legal relevance of biological sex.
Independent Women’s Voice fights for women by expanding support for policy solutions that aren’t just well intended, but actually enhance freedom, opportunities, and well-being.