Education Department, Connecticut reach deal on transgender athletes' sports participation
By Christopher Vondracek - The Washington Times - Updated: 5:58 p.m. on Wednesday, September 23, 2020
The Department of Education and a group of Connecticut school districts have reached a last-minute compromise over an athletics policy that allows transgender girls to compete against cisgender women and girls.
Groton Public Schools Superintendent Michael Graner said the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights and the school districts reached an accord this week.
The compromise forestalls a threatened Education Department cut of up to $18 million in grants while a federal lawsuit proceeds over whether cisgender girls’ Title IX rights are violated by the participation of transgender girls in sex-segregated sports.
“The basics of the compromise is that we will not use the grant funds for interscholastic sports; the funds had always been allocated for middle school magnet programs, not high school sports,” Mr. Graner told The Washington Times. “Once the court rules, we will of course comply with the decision.” TOP STORIES Joe Biden: Kamala Harris ready to step in 'if somebody pushed me off a roof or something' Rep. Adam Schiff says of GOP report on Hunter Biden: 'The Kremlin must be very pleased' Johnson & Johnson launches massive human trial of COVID-19 vaccine
An Education Department spokesperson confirmed that the schools and the agency had reached “special conditions” on the dispute.
The Education Department had set an Oct. 1 deadline for schools to cut ties with the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference or else lose funding as part of the Magnet School Assistance Program, which aids districts looking to attract Black and Hispanic children to higher-performing institutions.
Kimberly Richey, acting assistant secretary for civil rights in the Education Department, last month wrote to attorneys representing six Connecticut schools, saying a departmental investigation found the schools “treated student-athletes differently based on sex, by denying opportunities and benefits to female student-athletes that are available to male student-athletes.”
The schools have said they are complying with the athletic conference’s nondiscrimination policy, adopted in 2013 after the state legislature outlawed discrimination against transgender people.
On Monday, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, a Democrat, told the Education Department to “butt out,” accusing federal officials of attempting to “politicize a tough, versatile situation six weeks before an election.”
His office did not respond to a request for comment on the compromise between the schools and the Education Department.
In February, three high school cisgender girls sued the athletic conference and the school boards of Bloomfield, Cromwell, Glastonbury, Canton, and Danbury. The lawsuit alleges Title IX violations, citing the dominance of transgender athletes in girls’ track as denying them “opportunities for participation, recruitment, and scholarships.”
Christiana Holcomb, an attorney for the religious liberty advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom, serves as a counsel for the cisgender girls. She said she has not seen details about the agreement but noted, “We are optimistic and will proceed with [an expectation of the Office for Civil Rights] enforcing federal law as it is written.”
Ms. Holcomb said no hearings on the case have been scheduled but she hopes the issue to be resolved by the winter track season.
This summer, the Supreme Court held in R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes v. EEOC — decided alongside Bostock v. Clayton County — that transgender employees are entitled to protections under federal civil rights laws. The justices expressly noted that the ruling did not address questions about transgender athletes’ participation in athletics.
In March, Idaho became one of the first states in the nation to enact legislation barring transgender athletes from competing in sports consistent with their gender identity. That ban was challenged in federal court by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Transgender girls participating in girls’ sex-segregated sports has drawn criticism for unfairness. The Connecticut transgender track runners set multiple state records and won many high-caliber events.
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Somewhat promising, but far from definitive to serve as a solid template
for all levels of national sports.
Final position still in the oven, but glad to see this step forward.
