Department Of Education Seeking Comments on Title IX Revisions; Supporting Title IX as It Exists for Girls and Women
If you are a female athlete, a former athlete, a coach or official, are a parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, sibling of a current or future female athlete and believe that fair and safe competitive opportunities are a right that all biological women should continue to have then keep reading.
Standing on the sidelines, agreeing and saying transwomen competing with biological women isn’t fair is no longer enough. Now you may not be comfortable stating your opinion publicly for fear of retribution or you do not have an audience or means to influence, or the time to attend a rally or conference, but you do have the power to participate in our federal government’s process to change law. It is easier than you think.
Right now during the week of the 50th anniversary of Title IX Education Amendments of 1972, preventing discrimination and guaranteeing equality of the sexes in education, the Biden Administration shared their revisions to Title IX, issuing a new rule on redefining “women”.
On the surface, revisions preventing discrimination and equal opportunity for all is something all Americans should support. Redefining “sex” to include “gender identity” strives to include those left out of Title IX. But the regulation is more insidious when one reads further, “A recipient’s education program or activity would also include all of its academic and other classes, extracurricular activities and athletic programs.” This regulation as written, in effect will ensure that the sports issue will be decided in favor of biological men based on one's "gender identity". In addition, this regulation as written puts the onus on women to prove they are more vulnerable and harmed to a greater degree by this change than a transgender person. The basic foundation of Title IX law to protect women is now laid upon the backs of female student-athletes and their supporters to prove it should still exist to protect female athlete space.
What can you do? Go to the link provided by the Education Department for public commentary through September 12th; https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.regulations.gov/commenton/ED-2021-OCR-0166-0001__;!!BuQPrrmRaQ!mpMFcg0G09AmSnykBZo9DPSRVmxnT34amn_ofOhsDTTtlDtPG9WIjPzy0Sv9bcIFp9-4B0sg0om-TXJbnUi3X3Bg$. Things to know when providing commentary: the Office of Civil Rights may disregard comments limited only to the issue of sports participation. The regulation states, “the Department plans to address by separate notice of proposed rulemaking the question of what criteria, if any, recipients should be permitted to use to establish students’ eligibility to participate on a particular male or female athletics team. The scope of public comment on this notice of proposed rulemaking therefore does not include comments on that issue; those comments should be made in response to that separate rulemaking.”
But don’t let that discourage you. We do not know how or when that rulemaking might happen, and as written, this rule also applies to athletic programs. What is relevant for this proposed rule is to hear about how overruling biological sex with gender identity impacts the equal opportunities and benefits of female athletes and collateral issues of sex-separated spaces; hostile environment, sexual harassment, retaliation, competitive fairness, mental health and second class treatment of female students and athletes.
What are some ways to address the above relevant issues to protect girls and women in public comments? Some examples to site are under section 106.31: sharing locker room space with biological boys/men and uncomfortable environment that and psychological effects this creates for female athletes; the possibility of retaliation from educational administrators, teachers and peers in this current climate on girls and women for not feeling safe or comfortable with biological boys and men competing in the same space. Examples under section 106.41, include contact sports safety for biological women and the increased risks of injury; the competitive advantages of male androgynous development; the consequences to biological women athletes of missed opportunities to participate, win, gain recognition, earn awards of scholarship, financial prizes and contracts.
When writing be sure to site the section you are addressing (shared above) and share your story, personal insight and relative research supporting your’ opinion.
Everyone has a story or evidence in their own life to share in holding up this Title IX protection. Go ahead jump into arena of participative governance. We cannot rely on elected officials or a small group of outspoken women’s rights groups to stand up for continuing the protections for the girls and women in our life on their own. This takes a grass roots effort to protect biological women in sport. Let the Office of Civil Rights, Department of Education know where YOU stand in protecting our daughters, sisters, wives and neighbors safe and fair athletic opportunities
Seth Huston
