The Biden administration on Thursday unveiled a proposal that would prohibit schools from instituting policies that “categorically ban transgender students from participating on sports teams consistent with their gender identity.” The policy would allow schools to implement certain limitations in the interest of fairness or safety, however.
The proposed rule, which would impact any school or college that receives federal funding, would expand Title IX protections to include gender identity. Under the proposal, a “one-size-fits-all” ban on transgender athletes playing on teams that match their stated gender identity would be a violation of Title IX. The rule, which is likely to face challenges, will face a lengthy approval process.
“The U.S. Department of Education (Department) proposes to amend its regulations implementing Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX) to set out a standard that would govern a recipient’s adoption or application of sex-related criteria that would limit or deny a student’s eligibility to participate on a male or female athletic team consistent with their gender identity,” the Education Department wrote.
“Every student should be able to have the full experience of attending school in America, including participating in athletics, free from discrimination,” education secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement.
However, the White House said in a news release that the proposal “also recognizes that in some instances, particularly in competitive high school and college athletic environments, some schools may adopt policies that limit transgender students’ participation.”
“The proposed rule would provide schools with a framework for developing eligibility criteria that protects students from being denied equal athletic opportunity, while giving schools the flexibility to develop their own participation policies,” the White House said.
Any permitted limitation would be required to serve “important educational objectives,” such as fairness in competition and reduction of injury risks. Limitations would be more likely to be approved for older students in more competitive environments.
The proposal comes as at least 16 states have enacted legislation to ban biological male students from competing in high school women’s interscholastic sports, per the Associated Press. Several of the bans also cover intramural, club and college sports. Bans in three states have been put on hold amid legal challenges.
Nicole Neily, the president of Parents Defending Education, said the proposed rule shows the Biden administration “is trying to have their cake and eat it too: inject gender identity into athletics while placing the onus upon school districts to determine whether doing so would be problematic or not.”
“Without a doubt, institutions are going to err on the side of ‘inclusion,’ because they fear the wrath of the Education Department – thus, achieving the Department’s end goal while allowing them to maintain plausible deniability that they coerced districts into doing so,” Neily said in a statement.