Something unusual is happening in girls’ track and field: Boys keep winning.
On June 1st, Soren Stark-Chessa won the 800-meter Class C title in Maine. On May 25, Veronica Garcia in Washington claimed a girls’ state 400-meter dash track title. Also in May, Aayden Gallagher in Oregon took first place in the girls’ state 6A 200-meter race, and Lana Huff won the 200-meter race in Hawaii. In just a few weeks, in only one sport, four boys became girls’ track champions.
The wave of boys in girls’ sports is growing, and if President Biden gets his way, that wave will crash across the country, sweeping away titles, honors, and scholarships for girls in the process.
If you thought there was a law to prevent this injustice, you’re right. Title IX has stood for more than half a century to protect opportunities for women and fairness for all students. But the Biden Education Department is destroying this landmark civil rights law with a new regulatory regime.
A massive Title IX regulation, slated to take effect Aug. 1, says it is a civil rights violation to keep trans-identifying males out of girls’ restrooms and locker rooms and that “misgendering” someone may amount to sex discrimination. The rule would give Biden’s favored progressive gender ideology the force of law, and organizations including the Defense of Freedom Institute and Independent Women’s Law Center, alongside over half of the states, have filed lawsuits to stop it.
Two federal courts have already granted preliminary injunctions that would block the rule from taking effect in 10 states, the first arising out of the Defense of Freedom Institute’s lawsuit brought on behalf of Louisiana, Montana, Mississippi, and Idaho. These injunctions are encouraging victories for students in these states, but there is more to be done. For example, even before it issued the new regulations, the Biden administration already argued in court that schools must allow boys in girls’ sports.
President Biden has decided, without any input from Congress, that sex discrimination includes gender identity discrimination. His interpretation of Title IX means that any student who wants to be a girl must be treated as a girl, and a school that behaves otherwise is breaking the law.
Parents, students, and teachers should know that this gutting of Title IX goes far beyond athletics. Schools will be compelled to allow boys in girls’ restrooms and locker rooms, and students and teachers will be forced to “affirm” others’ gender identities by using their chosen names and pronouns.
No president gets to decide what sex means, and no girl should be forced to change clothes next to a boy. Republicans in Congress recognize this and have introduced a resolution to overturn the Biden rule. If these efforts in Congress and in the courts are successful, Title IX will remain intact. If they are not, the upcoming 52nd anniversary of Title IX as a law that empowers women might be its last.
Parents and students are, unsurprisingly, on the side of keeping women’s sports female. A study by NORC (formerly the National Opinion Research Center) at the University of Chicago found that 50% of American adults believe trans-identifying boys should never be allowed to compete in girls’ sports, compared with 12% who said such practices should always be allowed. This month, DFI and Independent Women’s Forum are bringing star athletes, including Martina Navratilova and Riley Gaines, to more than a dozen cities around the country to raise awareness of what women and girls stand to lose. The enthusiasm in the voices of young girls and their parents as they cheer for athletes, coaches, and policy leaders sends an unmistakable message. Sports are one of the most wholesome and character-building parts of childhood, and Americans will not surrender it to a radical agenda.
Anyone who thinks Biden’s policies will not affect their child, think again. Gallup has found that 2.8% of Generation Z identifies as transgender, which is more than double the rate of Millennials, who, in turn, identify as transgender at more than double the rate of Generation X and Baby Boomers.
Every time a boy wins in a girls’ sporting event, many girls lose out: the girl who is forced to settle for silver when she deserved gold, the girl who earned a spot on the podium but must watch this injustice from the bleachers, the girl who just missed qualifying for the finals because a boy took her spot, and the girl who didn’t make the team because the boy had speed and strength that she could never possibly attain.
The rising generation of girls deserves better than what Biden is about to inflict on them. Fairness, and their futures, require us to take action now to protect Title IX from Biden’s radical rewrite.