A “giant” push by transgender rights activists may lead to watered-down federal protections for women’s rights, some critics say, as an emotional debate continues over transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.
Some argue that including transgender people in Title IX protections may contribute to putting women at a competitive disadvantage not only in school sports but long after graduation.
“In fact, we know that 92% of female executives have played competitive sports in high school or college, so there is a direct link between athletic performance, athletic opportunities and future success down the road,” she said. Sarah Parshall Perry, Senior Legal Fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies.
States have jumped into the debate with legislation that has sparked contentious debates and legal arguments that could head to the US Supreme Court, experts said.
Perry, who said he worked extensively under the Trump administration on Title IX clarifications, said he is now working to stop the Biden administration’s “myriad changes” to the 1972 law that prohibits discrimination based on sex in public schools. schools that receive federal funds.
FEDERAL COURT REJECTS WOMEN ATHLETES’ CHALLENGE TO CONNECTICUT’S TRANSGENDER SPORTS POLICY
Eighteen GOP-controlled states have banned transgender student-athletes from participating in teams that align with their gender identity.
(AP Photo/Samuel Metz, File)
She called it an “astonishing act of arrogance” that President Joe Biden proposed last June to include gender identity in the statute to coincide with his 50th anniversary.
“The regulations…will strengthen protections for LGBTQI+ students who face discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity,” the Department of Education said at the time.
At the state level, Perry said he’s not surprised how many states are “in step” with the federal government, given what he described as “top-down politicking” on the contentious issue.
REPUBLICANS MAKE PROTECTION OF FEMALE SPORTS FROM BIOLOGICAL MALE TRANSGENDER ATHLETES AN ELECTION ISSUE
President Biden speaks during a press conference on the last day of the NATO summit in Madrid, June 30, 2022.
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
“I call the transgender political momentum something of a giant because it has gathered so much strength and is moving at such a breakneck pace,” she said.
Two high-profile attempts to ban biological men from competing in women’s sports failed last month, the latest setbacks for advocates of the restrictions.
An Ohio bill that would have barred biological men from competing in women’s sports was struck down by the General Assembly days after a Connecticut federal court struck down opposition to a policy allowing transgender athletes to participate in women’s leagues.
The losses came amid a wave of education bills and legal battles regarding transgender students that have been passed or proposed in recent years, with the Connecticut case arguably the first of its kind that could be taken up by the Supreme Court. from USA
TRANS PSYCHOLOGIST FILES REPORT AGAINST MARYLAND SCHOOL DISTRICT HIDING TRANSITIONS FROM PARENTS: ‘TERRIBLE IDEA’
Transgender advocates march from the South Dakota Governor’s Mansion to the State Capitol in Pierre, South Dakota, on March 11, 2021.
(AP Photo/Stephen Groves, File)
Four female athletes sought to overturn a Connecticut state policy allowing biological males to play on women’s sports teams, but a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit dismissed the challenge.
The federal court’s decision upheld a lower court’s ruling against the plaintiffs in Soule v. Connecticut Association of Schools Inc., who argued that the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference policy put female athletes at a disadvantage to other “born male students” in terms of competition. recognition and possible future scholarships.
The plaintiffs had petitioned the court for an injunction expunging the recorded victories of two biologically male athletes who broke records for 17 girls’ track meets and captured 15 women’s track and field state championship titles.
Lawyers for Alliance Defending Freedom, which represented the plaintiffs, said they were deciding how best to move forward after the court’s decision.
REPUBLICANS MAKE PROTECTING FEMALE SPORTS FROM BIOLOGICAL MALE ATHLETES AN ELECTION ISSUE
A group of protesters demonstrate in front of the Ohio State House in Columbus.
(Reuters/Seth Herald)
“The 2nd Circuit erred and we are evaluating all legal options, including appeal,” ADF lead attorney Christiana Kiefer said in a statement. “Our clients, like all female athletes, deserve access to fair competition. Fortunately, a growing number of states are taking action to protect women’s athletics.”
An analysis by the Washington Post earlier this year found that in the last three academic years, 64 such laws have been enacted regarding transgender students, 42% of which prohibit transgender students from participating in teams. sports that align with their gender identities.
In Virginia, which has been a hotspot for transgender student issues, Republican state delegate Karen Greenhalgh introduced a bill in November to restrict students to sports teams based on their biological sex. The bill would also prevent public schools from competing against private school teams unless the private schools agree to adhere to the bill’s provisions.
Specific efforts to restrict women’s sports to biological women have prevailed in 18 states, according to the nonprofit think tank. Movement Advance Project (MAP).
NOEM GOVERNMENT TERMINATES CONTRACT WITH TRANSGENDER ADVOCACY GROUP: ‘DIVIDING OUR YOUTH WITH RADICAL IDEOLOGIES’
Demonstrators protest in support of the rights of transgender youth.
(Fox News/File)
Even in states that have enacted bans, court orders prevent some of them from enforcing them, according to MAP. Such is the case in Idaho, which in 2021 became the first state to pass such a law with its “Equity in Women’s Sports” legislation.
Similar injunctions exist in West Virginia and Utah, pending further judicial review. A 2022 court order in Montana permanently blocked the state’s ban on higher education, but upheld the ban for K-12 schools.
Deep red South Dakota, which has been governed by a Republican majority since 1996, has not been immune to political battles over gender ideology, according to a National Review report.
Lobbyists for Sanford Health, a Sioux Falls-based health care conglomerate that boasts of being “the largest rural health system in the United States,” played a key role in blocking conservative legislation in the state with regarding transgender issues, according to sources who spoke to the outlet.
SOUTH DAKOTA LEGISLATORS REJECT CHANGES TO GOV’S TRANSGENDER SPORTS BILL. NO EM
A protester expresses his support during a march in favor of transgender people.
(Mark Kerrison/In pictures via Getty Images/File)
“The bill to stop doctors giving kids hormone-blocking drugs, when it failed, that was all Sanford,” South Dakota Republican Rep. John Mills told National Review. “You want to believe it’s not about the profits, but you’re also witnessing the reality of what’s going on on the ground and you can’t help but wonder.”
Sanford, whose contract with the state was ultimately terminated, did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment by press time.
THE FUTURE OF WOMEN’S SPORTS IS AT RISK DUE TO TRANSGENDER SPORTS
Perry said “it’s hard to separate” political ideology and money as motives behind political battles over transgender issues, but predicted they will lead to the Supreme Court. She also believes that money will have to be the ultimate death blow to the medical side of the movement, predicting class action lawsuits against clinics and doctors by their own patients.
“I think it’s definitely due to the bankruptcy of this whole ideology and its practitioners,” he said, noting how the Tavistock clinic, the UK’s only dedicated gender identity clinic for children and young people, has closed following an independent review. and faces multiple lawsuits.
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“I think our larger gender clinics are going to work in exactly the same way,” Perry said. “We’re already seeing medical complications, and I really hope that if we can choke the snake’s head by defunding these organizations, then maybe we’ll see this ideology start to fade.”
