#protect title ix

[rapeculturerealities]

Biden's Title IX proposal draws criticism in LGBTQ community

Some LGBTQ advocates this week slammed the Biden administration’s proposed revision to Title IX, accusing the president of backtracking on his commitment to protecting transgender young people.

The proposal, released Thursday by the Education Department, would prohibit the adoption of policies that “categorically” ban transgender athletes from school sports teams consistent with their gender identity, rebuking broad bans that have been implemented by 20 states, and counting.

But K-12 schools under the administration’s proposal would still have the leeway to limit transgender athletes’ participation in sports if they determine that including them will undermine competitive fairness or increase the risk of sports-related injuries, a senior Education Department official said Thursday.

“The proposed regulation would give schools flexibility to identify their own important educational objectives,” rather than adopt a one-size-fits-all approach, the official said on a call with reporters.

LGBTQ Americans and their allies have had mixed reactions to the administration’s proposed changes. While some are celebrating the possibility of a new federal civil rights law prohibiting laws that bar transgender students from participating in school sports, others say the proposal is a disappointing departure from prior actions and statements made by the Biden White House in support of equal rights for transgender people.

“State lawmakers take note — discriminating against transgender athletes is wrong and a violation of federal law. This new rule makes that abundantly clear,” said Kelley Robinson, President of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group.

Robinson added, however, that the new rule should be updated to clarify that “all transgender students should be presumed eligible to participate in sports consistent with their gender identity.”

“The Biden Administration framed their proposal as a ban on blanket discrimination against trans athletes. But actually it provides guidelines for how schools and universities can ban trans athletes legally,” Imara Jones, the founder and chief executive of TransLash Media, said Friday.

“It’s hard to have a ‘middle ground’ when it comes [to] supporting human rights for trans people, and I can’t see how Joe Biden can straddle the fence here,” she said.

[boccs]

Tell me more about how "both sides are the same" and that "voting for Biden is no better than voting for Trump."

[thefortysecondolive]

begging cis folks to unpack the phrase “women and non-binary people”

[protect-womens-sports]

“We know there are a lot of different opinions out there," NAIA president Jim Carr told CBS Sports. "For us, we believed our first responsibility was to create fairness and competition in the NAIA. ... We also think it aligns with the reasons Title IX was created. You're allowed to have separate but equal opportunities for women to compete."

According to the NAIA's new policy (which is included in full below), in addition to ruling out athletes that were assigned male at birth, the policy blocks those who were assigned female but have begun masculinizing hormone therapy to transition to women.

"It's important to know that the male sports are open to anyone," he added.   

What a win for women’s sports 🎉🎉🎉

[coochiequeens]

Dear Chris Murphy, I am a registered Democratic voter in Connecticut and Fuck You.

Chris Murphy insulted a woman for trying to pass a bill to celebrate women's sports and made it about how he teaches his kids to be respectful of everyone. His kids are two boys.

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

The Obama-appointed Judge who was overseeing Disney’s lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis recused himself on Thursday over a relative’s ownership of 30 shares of Disney stock.

The case was transferred to Judge Allen C. Winsor, an appointee of President Trump who previously upheld the state’s Parental Rights in Education law. That law, known to its critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” law, is at the center of the Disney-DeSantis controversy.

Disney sued DeSantis in April, alleging that the state had engaged in a campaign of retaliation against the company over its opposition to the bill. The state rescinded Disney’s special governing district in Orlando, and then reconstituted it under the control of five DeSantis appointees.

Disney has argued that the state has sought to punish the company for protected speech, and is seeking to overturn the state’s actions.

The lawsuit was initially assigned to Judge Mark E. Walker, whom President Obama appointed to the bench in 2012.

DeSantis’ lawyers sought to have Walker removed on the grounds that his previous comments in other cases show he might be biased against the Governor. In one case, the judge noted that Disney might lose its special status because, “arguably,” it “ran afoul of state policy.”

Disney’s lawyers, led by Daniel Petrocelli, argued that was not nearly enough to merit disqualification.

Walker agreed with Disney and denied the DeSantis motion on Thursday, saying it was “wholly without merit.”

“In fact, I find the motion is nothing more than rank judge-shopping,” he wrote. “Sadly, this practice has become all too common in this district.”

However, Walker also noted that his relative owns Disney stock, and that he therefore has an ethical duty to step aside.

The case will instead go to Winsor, who previously served as Florida’s solicitor general. In that role, he defended the state’s law outlawing same-sex marriage in 2014.

In February, Winsor dismissed a lawsuit from students and parents who alleged that the Parental Rights in Education law had caused schools to remove books with LGBTQ themes from libraries and to remove LGBTQ lyrics from school musicals.

That lawsuit was brought by Roberta Kaplan, who won a landmark gay rights case at the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. v. Windsor, in 2013. In the Florida case, she argued that the law violated the First Amendment and the Equal Protection Clause, as well as Title IX, which bars sex discrimination in education.

Winsor dismissed the suit twice, ruling both times that the plaintiffs had not shown that they suffered enough harm to warrant standing in federal court.

“Plaintiffs have shown a strident disagreement with the new law, and they have alleged facts to show its very existence causes them deep hurt and disappointment,” Winsor wrote. “But to invoke a federal court’s jurisdiction, they must allege more. Their failure to do so requires dismissal.”

Walker, the Obama-appointed Judge, had previously ruled against DeSantis in high-profile cases. In November, he blocked a law against “woke” ideology from taking effect at state universities.

Walker also struck down state voting restrictions last year, finding that the state had a “horrendous history of racial discrimination in voting.” DeSantis called the ruling “performative partisanship” and appealed to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which reversed Walker’s ruling earlier this year.

[justinssportscorner]

Madison Williams at Sports Illustrated:

A group of 40 professional, Olympic and Paralympic athletes signed a letter regarding recent anti-trans sports bans sent to House of Representatives legislative directors on Monday.

The athletes include USWNT star Megan Rapinoe, recently retired WNBA star Sue Bird and USWNT star Becky Sauerbrunn. The remaining athletes who signed the letter, organized by the LGBTQ advocacy group Athlete Ally, compete in various sports, such as soccer, hockey and rugby.

The letter calls out the Republican-led “Protection of Girls and Women in Sports Act,” HR 734, which would ban transgender and intersex girls and women from competing in sports across the country. If the bill passes, it would become part of Title IX legislation.

The 40 athletes who signed the letter expressed how the proposed bill “does not protect women in sports,” as it would exclude women and girls from getting necessary “mental and physical health benefits.”

A group of more than 40 athletes, including Megan Rapinoe, Becky Sauerbrunn, and Sue Bird, signed a letter organized by LGBTQ+ sports advocacy group Athlete Ally opposing anti-trans bill HR734 that is deceitfully called “Protection of Women and Girls In Sports Act” in which it would ban trans and intersex women athletes from competing in competitions matching their gender identity.

See Also:

Athlete Ally: Pro, Olympic and Paralympic Athletes Sign Open Letter Against HR734

[taketheringtolohac]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[thatstormygeek]

The problems of today’s federal judiciary have been clear for some time, but the U.S. Supreme Court’s order allowing lower courts to block the Biden administration’s entire 423-page sex discrimination education rule while litigation continues brought many of those problems together in a jarring way that further highlights how incredibly imbalanced today’s judiciary is. At its base, the August 16 ruling is an order from five justices allowing anti-transgender arguments to block an entire multifaceted federal rule — regardless of the fact that very little of the rule addresses transgender protections. ... As I’ve written about previously, the right, from Chief Justice John Roberts on down, is setting up contingent planning — two divergent paths it can take depending on who wins the White House in November. A question that the Title IX rule order raised for me is whether the Democratic appointees on the court might be doing the same — and what that would look like when it is three doing so. Regardless of what the justices are doing, however, the order made clear how necessary it is for the left to be making its own two-path contingency preparations. And to do so openly and aggressively in these next two and a half months.

The rule at issue was promulgated under Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 and had been a long time coming. To the extent states are complaining about this being a new issue or being caught off guard, that’s just a lie. ... As I’ve detailed extensively at Law Dork, the right — both Republican-led states and far-right organizations — began filing lawsuits carefully in conservative jurisdictions, initially even in ways aimed at getting particular judges, to block the rule. ... Every district court judge save one did so, and the one who didn’t — Judge Annemarie Axon (a Trump appointee in Alabama) — had her ruling almost immediately blocked “administratively” by an unidentified panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. The lower courts here felt free to block the entire rule because the conservatives on the Supreme Court have empowered lower-court judges to do as they wish, tossing out precedent and ignoring procedural rulings as they desire in efforts to move the law right. And while those lower courts have ultimately been reversed on occasion when they go too far, the reversals hide the reality that the Supreme Court also lets stand or even affirms many other extreme rulings that move the law significantly rightward.

[willdoanythingfortacos]

BOOM! yes yes and oh yes!!! love this... time to start treating our ladies better!!! Stand up men and show your respect... protect them because theyre important!!! its your christian duty...

[fadedelegance]

Fixed your headline for you!

[rapeculturerealities]

Biden's Title IX proposal would make broad, transgender sports bans illegal : NPR

the Thursday announcement, U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said, "Every student should be able to have the full experience of attending school in America, including participating in athletics, free from discrimination."

Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images

On Thursday, the U.S. Education Department announced a proposed change to Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally funded education programs. The proposal would make it illegal for schools to broadly ban transgender students from sports teams that align with their gender identity, rather than their assigned sex at birth.

The department says the move comes after two years of outreach to stakeholders across the country, and the changes still give schools some flexibility to ban transgender athletes depending on age and sport.

"Every student should be able to have the full experience of attending school in America, including participating in athletics, free from discrimination," said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. "Being on a sports team is an important part of the school experience for students of all ages."

[profeminist]

"School districts that don’t respect transgender and nonbinary students’ pronouns or force them to use restrooms that don’t align with their gender identity could be committing federal civil rights violations beginning this fall.

Today, the U.S. Department of Education announced the issuance of a final rule under Title IX to protect people in public schools from sex-based discrimination and harassment. The announcement marks a significant update in federal efforts to combat sex discrimination in federally funded educational institutions. During a call with reporters, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona emphasized the administration’s dedication to ensuring that Title IX effectively serves all students by providing safe, welcoming, and rights-respecting educational environments."

Read the full piece here

[coochiequeens]

"Checking birth certificate and/or ensuring everyone has a routine physical before competing = egregious violation of personal dignity," Gaines responded. "Forcing girls to undress in front of an intact and exposed male = NOT an egregious violation of personal dignity, but rather kind and inclusive.” I hate posting from Fox News but she summed it up perfectly

Riley Gaines, a former NCAA champion swimmer, called out the double standard in the criticisms of the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which House lawmakers passed with zero votes from Democrats.

Gaines on Sunday responded to a critique from Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., who tweeted Thursday the bill would "mean the forced inspection of student-athletes, which is an egregious violation of a student’s personal dignity."

"Checking birth certificate and/or ensuring everyone has a routine physical before competing = egregious violation of personal dignity," Gaines responded. "Forcing girls to undress in front of an intact and exposed male = NOT an egregious violation of personal dignity, but rather kind and inclusive.

"This should be bipartisan, yet not (sic) democrats in the House voted in favor of HR 734. I'll stand with anyone, regardless of party affiliation, who vows to protect girls and women in sports."

The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act passed in a 219-203 vote Thursday morning — all the "yes" votes came from Republicans, and all the "no" votes came from Democrats.

Republicans defended the bill as an attempt to spare women and girls from having to compete against transgender women and girls — biological males who can sometimes dominate these sports and prevent some female athletes from making the team. However, several Democrats argued in debate that the GOP bill is an extension of the bullying that transgender students are already facing at school.

Republicans also accused Democrats of pursuing transgender rights to an illogical end that goes against the intent of Title IX, which most credit with dramatically expanding participation in women’s sports.

"Congress in 1972 created Title IX to protect women's sports to enable women to have an equal playing field in athletics," said Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., who sponsored the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act. "In worship to their trans idols, the administration wants to flip that on its head. It is insane."

Under Steube’s bill, educational institutions that receive Title IX funding from the federal government would not be allowed to "permit a person whose sex is male to participate in an athletic program or activity that is designed for women or girls." The bill adds that the sex of an athlete is defined only by their "reproductive biology and genetics at birth."

House passage sends the bill to the Senate, where Democrat leaders are unlikely to take it up, and President Biden has said he would veto the bill if it made it to his desk.

Fox News’ Pete Kasperowicz contributed to this report.