Transgender Athletes: A Comprehensive Study - Part I

I researched male and female characteristics, sex, and gender differences as a preamble to support Women’s Sports against the Male Transgender invasion driven by the Woke Culture. The Reference section is extensive and made the undertaking very intense. 

“I HAVE HAD IT!”

Misogynous – Hateful Woke Culture Politics 

Destroying Women’s Sports

Depriving Female Athletes’ Rights for Equal Opportunities in Sports

THE WAY WE WERE

Grace and Struggle in the 1920s

No Voting Rights But Respected in Society 

Biological Females/Women Doing Sports

Modern Legislature

1972 TITLE IX 

Title IX is the most commonly used name for the Federal Civil Rights Law in the United States (Title IX), which was enacted as part of the Education Amendment of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other education program that receives funding from the federal government. 

This is Public Law No. 92318, 86 Stat. 235 (June 23, 1972), codified at 20 U.S.C. §§ 1681–1688. The precursor to Title IX was an executive order issued in 1967 by former President Lyndon Johnson forbidding discrimination in federal contracts. Before these orders were issued by the National Organization for Women (NOW) had persuaded him to include the addition of women. 

Executive Order 11375 required all entities receiving federal contracts to end discrimination based on sex in hiring and employment. In 1969, a notable example of its success was Bernice Sandler, who used the executive order to retain her job and tenure at the University of Maryland. She utilized university statistics to show how female employment at the university had plummeted as men replaced qualified women. Sandler then brought her complaints to the Department of Labor's Office for Federal Fair Contracts Compliance. She was encouraged to file a formal complaint, later citing pay, rank, and admissions inequalities.

I was part of the Title IX Movement while coaching at ASU (Artistic Gymnastics and Athletics) under my former married name, ‘Sublette.’ It was about gender (then used to identify males and females), which meant equal sports access, but not necessarily the same sports. Nobody had to argue at that time about “what or who is a biological male and female” … it just was accepted as part of science and biology!

Woke Culture Starts to Influence Legislation

On March 8, 2021, President Joe Biden issued Executive Order 14021 entitled "Guaranteeing an Educational Environment Free From Discrimination based on Sex, Including Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity," reversing changes made by the Trump administration to limit the scope of Title IX to biological sex only, excluding gender identity and sexual orientation. 

The executive order also provided a timeline for the Secretary of Education and Attorney General to "review all existing regulations, orders, guidance documents, policies, and any other similar agency actions (collectively, agency actions) that are or may be inconsistent with the policy set forth" in the order. 

On June 16, 2021, the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights issued a Notice of Interpretation explaining that it will "enforce Title IX's prohibition on discrimination based on sex to include: (1) discrimination based on sexual orientation; and (2) discrimination based on gender identity. The review set out in E.O. 14021 was still ongoing as of April 2022.

Since then, thirty-three States have introduced more than 100 bills that aim to curb the rights of transgender people across the country, with advocacy groups calling 2021 a record-breaking year for such legislation. Many of these bills are rapidly making their way through state legislatures. 

Twenty-one States have passed legislation protecting Women’s sports – and the Republican House of Representatives just passed a Federal bill doing the same. 

On April 6, 2023, Arkansas became the first State to outlaw providing gender-affirming treatment to minors, a move that the American Civil Liberties Union said would “send a terrible and heartbreaking message” to transgender youth nationwide. 

According to data from the Human Rights Campaign, one of the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy groups, at least 117 bills have been introduced in the current legislative session that targets the transgender community. It’s the highest number the organization has recorded since it began tracking anti-LGBTQ legislation more than 15 years ago. The majority of bills would affect transgender youth, a group that researchers and medical professionals warn is already susceptible to high rates of suicide and depression. It has become an issue that needs to be solved, especially to keep young girls from dropping out (“What’s the use”) and at the Elite level because Olympic medals are usually linked to future financial endorsements. 

Supreme Court Decision

WASHINGTON

April 6, 2023

The US Supreme Court ruled on April 6, 2023, that a transgender girl may compete on the girls’ cross country and track teams at her middle school in West Virginia while her appeal moved forward, signaling that a majority of the justices are not ready to enter another battleground in the culture wars.

The Supreme Court’s brief order, which let stand an appeals court’s temporary injunction, gave no reasons, which is not unusual when the justices rule on emergency applications filed on what critics call the court’s shadow docket. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, issued a dissenting opinion indicating that states are entitled to enact laws “restricting participation in women’s or girls’ sports based on genes or physiological or anatomical characteristics.”

The case, involving conflicting conceptions of inclusiveness and fairness in sports, arose from a 2021 law in West Virginia that barred boys from competing on girls’ teams in public schools. The law made distinctions based on what it called “biological sex,” which it defined as “an individual’s physical form as a male or female based solely on the individual’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth.” 

Patrick Morrisey, West Virginia’s attorney general, a Republican, said he was disappointed by the Supreme Court’s order but viewed it as a temporary setback.

“We remain confident that when this case is ultimately determined on the merits, we will prevail,” he said in a statement, adding: “It’s just basic fairness and common sense not to have biological males play in women’s sports.”

GOP Passes Girls’ Sports Bill

All House Democrats side with Trans-swimmers Lia Thomas

Every House Democrat should have trouble looking their daughters in the eye. In one of the clearest indications of what the President’s party has become, not even one had the backbone to buck the extremists and protect Title IX. Sticking a knife in the backs of the women’s movement they’ve claimed to champion, Democrats showed the country whose side they’re on. And it’s not America’s girls.

Reference:

Suzanne Bowdey, April 20,m 2023

She serves as Editorial Director and Senior Writer for The Washington Stand

Biden Plan Allows Limits on Trans Athletes’ Participation in School Sports

April 26, 2023: President Biden has proposed a new regulation that directly attacks Women’s Sports by requiring schools to allow males who self-identify as female to compete. The WH administration is playing a deceptive game with Women’s Sports. Their rule insists males must be allowed to play in women’s schools unless a school can demonstrate to the Department of Education how it will jeopardize the physical health of young women. It is the first time the administration has substantively weighed in on the charged debate. The proposal would also prevent schools from enacting across-the-board bans. The WH administration proposed a rule change that would allow schools to block some transgender athletes from competing on sports teams that match their gender identities. But the proposal would also prevent schools from enacting across-the-board bans.

Under the Department of Education proposal, “categorically” barring transgender athletes in that way would violate Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination at educational institutions that receive federal funding. But it would give universities and K-12 schools the discretion to limit the participation of transgender students if they conclude that including transgender athletes could undermine competitive fairness or potentially lead to sports-related injuries, a key part of the debate about transgender athletes in women’s sports. 

The Department of Education said the proposal was meant to “advance Title IX’s longstanding goal of ensuring equal opportunity in athletics” and offer “much-needed clarity” about how public schools, colleges, and universities should navigate a contentious issue. According to the Heritage Action of America, Biden’s Department of Education is putting female athletes on defense. They are imposing a false standard by forcing female athletes to justify the existence of their own sports to maintain fair competition. Their rule insists that males must be allowed to play in women’s sports - any exceptions must be made on a case-by-case basis. This would force a mountain of bureaucratic paperwork on each and every school receiving federal funding just to maintain the integrity of female athletics  May 5, 2023).

Elementary school students would generally be able to participate in school sports according to their gender identity under the proposal. But at more competitive levels, including high school and college sports, questions of physicality and fairness could prompt restrictions on transgender athletes. The Education Department advised that schools would have to assess the ages of students and the level of the competition, as well as the nature of the sport itself. The impact may be different, for example, in track versus badminton.

The proposal must undergo a period of public comment. Once it is in effect, a Senior official with the Education Department said the federal government will be ready to investigate and enforce violations – up to and including withholding federal funding, if necessary. But some transgender rights advocates are worried about whether the proposal could open the door to future discrimination. “The people that are seeking to prohibit trans people from participating would absolutely seek to apply this across the board,” said Sasha Buchert, a senior attorney with Lambda Legal, an L.G.B.T.Q. civil rights organization. They “would make the same arguments – whether we are talking about a 6-year-old playing soccer or someone playing varsity volleyball.” Lambda Legal represented a transgender girl seeking to compete on girls’ cross country and track teams in West Virginia, whom the Supreme Court ruled in favour on April 6, 2023 (see previous). Ms. Buchert, who is transgender, anticipated that the new Biden administration rule could pave the way for a series of discrimination complaints from parents and families, challenging school districts. “It would be really helpful to understand how the department is going to investigate those,” she said.

Conservatives and critics quickly jumped on the news, arguing that the Biden administration was destroying Women’s Sports. Americans are deeply divided on transgender rights, a poll shows, being opposed to participation by transgender women and girls in women’s divisions. “Good luck – this won’t fly in Florida,” Manny Diaz Jr., Florida’s Education Commissioner, said in a statement. “We will never allow boys to play in girls’ sports. We will fight this overreach tooth and nail. And we will stop at nothing to uphold the protections afforded women under Title IX.” 

As it stands, 20 states have laws on the books that bar transgender students from participating in sports consistent with their gender identities, according to Movement Advancement Project, a think tank that focuses on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender parity. Those laws would not be immediately undone by the Biden administration rule, said Dr. Elizabeth Sharrow, an Associate Professor of Public Policy and History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She anticipates a new host of legal battles over the interpretation of the rule and new legislation that might seek to “skirt through whatever space the regulation carves out for exclusion.” The final rule will “stand for as long as the current admin is in office,” Dr. Sharrow said. “We could relitigate all of these questions again with a different administration with a different political agenda at stake.”

The new proposal comes as transgender issues increasingly loom – in sports and politics – even as the number of transgender athletes remains small. About 1.4 percent of 13 to 17-year-olds and 1.3 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds identify as transgender, compared with 0.5 percent of all adults, according to a new report last year that found a growing embrace among young people. The proposal did not appear to affect elite college sports immediately. The proposed rules acknowledged that the National Collegiate Athletic Association had decided last year to set its rules sport by sport and essentially to follow guidelines set by major national and world governing bodies. The rules vary by sport.

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