The Biden Administration proposed a rule on Thursday that would allow schools to bar some transgender athletes from competing on sports teams that match their gender identities—but schools could not enact across-the-board bans.
“Categorically” barring all transgender athletes would violate Title IX, which ensures that all students have equal opportunity to take part in team sports and cannot be discriminated against on the basis of sex.
However, the new proposal would allow schools from kindergarten through college the discretion to limit participation by transgender students—if it can be determined that the person’s participation would undermine competitive fairness or potentially lead to sports-related injuries.
The proposal is the first time the Biden Administration has weighed in on the debate over transgender athletes. It comes on the same day that the Supreme Court ruled that a 12-year-old transgender girl in West Virginia can run track and cross country on her middle school’s teams.
The Education Department has advised that school would have to assess certain issues, like athlete age, level of competition and the nature of the sport itself. It’s expected that at the grade school level, transgender girls would generally be allowed to participate in girls’ sports, while discretion would begin to factor in at the high school and college levels.
The White House proposal came one day before Kansas joined 13 other states in barring gender-affirming care for transgender minors, though federal judges have blocked enforcement of these laws in Alabama and Arkansas.
According to the Williams Institute, a UCLA think tank, some 300,000 of the tens of millions of students between ages 13 and 17 identify as transgender. A 2107 survey by Human Rights Campaign suggested that fewer than 15% of transgender youth play sports.
Conservatives quickly blasted the White House proposal.
“Title IX was meant to protect women’s sports. Now, Biden is using Title IX to destroy them,” RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel tweeted on Thursday.
At least 16 states currently have bans covering at least high school interscholastic sports. Some of those bans extend to intramural, club or college sports.
In at least three states, however, enforcing those bans has been paused by the courts. Another ban doesn’t officially take effect until July.
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