After a misguided attempt to bring its version of fairness to trans student-athletes, the Biden administration has withdrawn a proposed ruling through Title IX guidelines.
The rule had sought to generally allow trans elementary school students to play on sports teams matching their gender identities. However, higher school levels would still be able to ban trans students from certain sports if they claim it’s to preserve “fairness” or avoid the possibility of sports-related injuries. In such a case that a school did ban a trans students from a sport, it would have had to “minimize harms” by providing other participation opportunities, the Department of Education said, which was essentially vague wordage that could be interpreted in a variety of ways.
Trans lawmakers spoke up against the proposed rule, sending a letter to Biden urging him to reconsider a rule that would prevent schools from being discriminatory toward trans athletes in any manner. “There is no such thing as an acceptable ‘compromise’ that limits trans Americans’ access to equal rights,” the letter declared. “When it comes to policy addressing trans athletes, our stance is this: Trans athletes belong in sports. Full stop.”
During the public comment period, a memo announcing the withdrawal was read: “Numerous commenters expressed concerns about the application of the proposed regulation in practice, arguing that the proposed regulation was unclear or too complex for recipients to implement, and many commenters offered alternative regulatory text for the Department’s consideration to clarify, simplify, elaborate on or substantively change the focus and impact of the proposed rule.”
“Additionally,” it continued, “a significant number of commenters included discussions of case law, scientific studies and research papers, and existing athletic association policies and practices regarding athletic eligibility criteria that, according to the commenters, supported the adoption, modification or withdrawal of the proposed regulation.”
Multiple pending lawsuits associated with the proposed rule were also acknowledged in the writing, as well as lawsuits related to other applications of Title IX “in the context of gender identity.”
From the response memo: “In light of the comments received and those various pending court cases, the Department has determined not to regulate on this issue at this time.”
As of now, there has been no further word regarding the future possibility of another ruling before Biden leaves office.