Female athletes like us will suffer if Biden admin is allowed to rewrite Title IX
The Biden administration’s decision to radically revise Title IX rules does more than redefine sex in U.S. law. It guts equal opportunities for women – particularly female athletes.
There are bad ideas. And then there are bad ideas that hurt people.
Seriously hurt a lot of people.
The Biden administration’s decision to radically revise Title IX rules does more than attempt to redefine sex in American law. It absolutely guts equal opportunities for women – particularly female athletes like us – and seriously endangers their health and safety in the process.
No wonder so many lawsuits have been filed in just the last couple of weeks to challenge these new changes.
By changing the definition of "sex" to include "gender identity," the administration seems determined to force all Americans to ignore scientific reality and embrace radical gender ideology.
The administration is convinced that gender identity trumps biology when it comes to defining "sex" under Title IX. No amount of biological evidence will persuade them otherwise.
Men are, on average, bigger, stronger and faster than women. When men and women collide on athletic courts and playing fields, it’s the women who usually get hurt. When they try to share the same restrooms and locker rooms, it’s usually the women who get taken advantage of and preyed upon.
It’s the whole reason men have their own teams, and women have theirs. It’s why Title IX was created – to ensure crucial protections, fair circumstances and equal opportunities.
Yet the administration chooses to ignore all of those realities – and pressure the rest of us to ignore them, too – accommodating men who want to "identify" as women, even if that pretense hurts the women themselves.
Clearly, this administration – which makes a great show of commitment to women’s best interests – isn’t really interested in women’s rights at all.
They’re certainly not interested in protecting women’s privacy. Under the new regulations, women and girls will be forced to undress, sleep or shower next to males. All restrooms, locker rooms and even hotel rooms (on school trips) will be effectively co-ed, to accommodate those who identify as the opposite sex.
The Biden administration is just as disinterested in protecting women’s safety. It’s not safe to put men and women in the same locker rooms, restrooms and hotel rooms. Things happen that could happen almost anywhere but are sure to happen a lot more easily and often when women don’t have the protections of privacy.
BIDEN’S WOKE TITLE IX RULE IS SO INSANE, IT FORCES KIDS AND TEACHERS TO LIE
And, finally – despite what they say – Biden administration officials are not remotely interested in protecting women’s sports. If the heightened risk and embarrassment of losing their privacy doesn’t keep many girls and women out of athletic competition, the forced integration of male athletes who identify as female into their teams and events surely will.
Despite disingenuous claims by the Biden administration that these new regulations won’t impact women’s athletics, it’s clear that they will, in fact, have a devastating effect.
There’s just no way to redefine "sex" in the laws regulating sports without affecting sports. And, given that the administration has been saying for years that men must be welcomed into women’s athletics, it makes no sense that they won’t seize this chance to enforce that agenda.
The effects are sure to be devastating for women and girls all over America, too many of whom are already seeing their hard work and cherished dreams fall victim to the new "fairness." We both know this from personal experience.
HOW BIDEN'S NEW TITLE IX REGULATIONS EVISCERATE THE DEFINITION OF SEX
Madison competed in cross-country and track and field for Idaho State University, where she was repeatedly forced to compete against a male athlete identifying as a woman – and lost every race against that athlete. After a lawsuit was filed to challenge Idaho’s Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) attorneys helped her to intervene in the case.
Lainey played soccer at West Virginia State University. In her state, a middle-school male athlete competing on a girls’ track team beat almost 300 female athletes in three years – and denied two girls spots in the women’s conference championship. ADF attorneys assisted Lainey to intervene in a lawsuit filed against West Virginia’s Save Women’s Sports Act.
Both of those lawsuits are ongoing, and one or both could reach the U.S. Supreme Court soon. Meanwhile, numerous other lawsuits – many filed by ADF on behalf of students, teachers and other female athletes – are directly challenging the Biden administration’s new rule.
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We have taken this stand because – in school after school, state after state – the impact of the Biden administration’s agenda has been the same: frustration and disappointment, broken dreams and lost opportunities.
As former University of Kentucky athlete Riley Gaines recently told a U.S. House oversight subcommittee, "By redefining sex discrimination to include ‘gender identity’ in regulation, the Biden administration will be eradicating female-only sports, spaces and scholarships at institutions receiving federal funding."
In all of these ways and many others, the aggressive effort to rewrite Title IX threatens the most basic rights and protections of American women. Their safety, their privacy, their potential to participate competitively in school sports – all of these are endangered by the changes being forced on us by an administration that thinks it can change reality.
Biden officials seem convinced their drastic revisions will raise awareness of their preferred ideology among all Americans.
But – in reality – they’ve just lowered the boom on women.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM MADISON KENYON
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM LAINEY ARMISTEAD
Lainey Armistead is a second-year student at Stetson University College of Law and a former team captain for the West Virginia State University women’s soccer team.
Both athletes are represented by Alliance Defending Freedom (@ADFLegal).
