US Education Department: Transgender sports inclusion violates others’ rights
By Pat Eaton-Robb
Associated Press
May 28, 2020
HARTFORD,
Conn. -- Connecticut’s policy allowing transgender girls to compete as
girls in high school sports violates the civil rights of athletes who
have always identified as female, the U.S. Education Department has
determined in a decision that could force the state to change course to
keep federal funding and influence others to do the same.
A
letter from the department’s civil rights office, a copy of which was
obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, came in response to a
complaint filed last year by several cisgender female track athletes who
argued that two transgender female runners had an unfair physical
advantage.
The office said in the 45-page letter that
it may seek to withhold federal funding over the policy, which allows
athletes to participate under the gender with which they identify. The
policy is a violation of Title IX, the federal civil rights law that
guarantees equal education opportunities for women, including in
athletics, the office said.
It has “denied female
student-athletes athletic benefits and opportunities, including
advancing to the finals in events, higher level competitions, awards,
medals, recognition, and the possibility of greater visibility to
colleges and other benefits,” according to the letter, which is dated
May 15.
The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic
Conference says its policy complies with a state law barring schools
from discriminating against transgender students.
“Connecticut
law is clear and students who identify as female are to be recognized
as female for all purposes — including high school sports,” the athletic
conference said in a statement. “To do otherwise would not only be
discriminatory but would deprive high school students of the meaningful
opportunity to participate in educational activities, including
inter-scholastic sports, based on sex-stereotyping and prejudice sought
to be prevented by Title IX and Connecticut state law.”
The
federal decision carries implications beyond Connecticut, said Roger
Brooks, an attorney for the Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents
the girls who brought the complaint.
“Around the
nation, districts are going to want to be reading this, because it does
have legal implications,” he said. “It is a first decision from the
agency charged with enforcing Title IX addressing the question of
whether males on the playing field or on the track are depriving girls
of opportunities consistent with Title IX.”
The
decision by the civil rights office names the conference, along with the
school districts for which the transgender runners and those filing the
complaint competed — Glastonbury, Bloomfield, Hartford, Cromwell,
Canton and Danbury.
The office said it will “either
initiate administrative proceedings to suspend, terminate, or refuse to
grant or continue and defer financial assistance” to the conference and
those districts or refer the cases to the U.S. Department of Justice.
In
its letter, the civil rights office said that it notified the athletic
conference and the school districts of its pending decision in February,
but that later negotiations failed to result in an agreement.
“All
that today’s finding represents is yet another attack from the Trump
administration on transgender students,” said Chase Strangio, who leads
transgender justice initiatives for the American Civil Liberties Union’s
LGBT and HIV Project.
“Trans students belong in our schools, including on sports teams, and we aren’t backing down from this fight,” Strangio said.
The
dispute, already the subject of a federal lawsuit, centers on two
transgender sprinters, Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood, who have
frequently outperformed their competitors, winning a combined 15 girls
state indoor or outdoor championship races since 2017, according to the
lawsuit.
The ACLU’s lawyers for the transgender
athletes have argued both are undergoing hormone treatments that have
put them on an equal footing with the girls they are competing against.
Brooks said he hopes the judge in the lawsuit will take the Education Department decision into consideration.
One of the plaintiffs, Chelsea Mitchell, won two state indoor title races over Miller this year.
Mitchell, a senior, said Thursday that she is both happy and relieved by the Department of Education’s decision.
“It
feels like we are finally headed in the right direction, and that we
will be able to get justice for the countless girls along with myself
that have faced discrimination for years,” she said. “It is liberating
to know that my voice, my story, my loss, has been heard; that those
championships I lost mean something.”
The plaintiffs
sought to block the participation of Miller and Yearwood, both seniors,
from spring track meets, which were later canceled because of the
COVID-19 pandemic. They were also seeking to erase all records set by
the transgender athletes.
Connecticut is one of 18
states, along with Washington, D.C., that allow transgender high school
athletes to compete without restrictions, according to Transathlete.com.
Several
other states have polices barring the participation of transgender
athletes, and Idaho recently became the first to pass a law banning
transgender women from competing in women’s sports.
The
ACLU and Legal Voice filed a federal lawsuit contending that law
violates the U.S. Constitution because it is discriminatory and an
invasion of privacy.
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