the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Ridgewood NJ, New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin co-led a coalition of 12 attorneys general in filing a comment letter supporting robust antidiscrimination protections for transgender students in response to a proposed rule by the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) that would clarify how schools receiving federal funding can remain in compliance with Title IX, a federal civil rights statute, when determining a transgender student’s eligibility to participate on school athletic teams.
In a letter sent May 15, 2023 to USDOE Secretary Miguel Cardona, Attorney General Platkin joined New York Attorney General Letitia James in co-leading a group of 12 attorneys general supporting aspects of the proposed national rule that would prohibit schools from excluding transgender students from school sports at institutions that receive federal funding.
The letter also recommends revisions to the rule that would, at a minimum, guarantee the inclusion of all transgender students in school sports until they reach the level of elite college athletics. In the letter, the attorneys general urge the Biden Administration to require, at a minimum, that schools receiving federal funding permit transgender students to participate in athletics consistent with their gender identity at the elementary, middle, high school, and college intramural levels, and to provide minimum nondiscrimination protections at all levels.
The letter also urges the Biden Administration to make clear that the Administration’s rules under Title IX do not prohibit States like New Jersey from establishing broader protections for transgender athletes under their own state anti-discrimination laws.
“Every student deserves a safe and inclusive school environment,” said Attorney General Platkin. “In New Jersey, we recognize the benefit of school sports on overall education, and we will continue to protect transgender students from all forms of discrimination in schools across our State.”
Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in federally funded education programs or activities. Significant recent legal developments related to the interpretation of Title IX underscore USDOE’s need to clarify that Title IX’s broad prohibition against differential treatment on the basis of sex includes discrimination based on gender identity. Federal appeals courts have recognized that Title IX’s bar against sex discrimination prohibits discrimination against transgender students.
As the letter explains, there are an estimated 300,000 transgender youth between the ages of thirteen and seventeen in the United States. The letter makes clear that discrimination and exclusion on the basis of one’s transgender status causes tangible and real educational, economic, emotional, and health harms – harms that are particularly grave for transgender young people, who already face heightened rates of depression, substance use disorders, and suicide.
The letter also explains that equal access to athletics can play a critical role in education and offers many educational benefits. Athletic participation has been linked to academic achievement and improved academic performance. As the attorneys general explain in the letter, transgender students who participate in sports experience similar outcomes to their cisgender peers. The signatory States recognize that these benefits enhance students’ well-being and facilitate their ability to learn.
“The law in New Jersey prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender identity and expression, and that means students have a right to participate in athletics in a manner that corresponds with their gender identity and expression,” said Sundeep Iyer, Director of the Division on Civil Rights. “We commend the U.S. Department of Education’s efforts to protect transgender and nonbinary students across the country from discrimination.”
New Jersey recommends in its Transgender Student Guidance for School Districts that, “with respect to gender-segregated classes or athletic activities, including intramural and interscholastic athletics, all students must be allowed to participate in a manner consistent with their gender identity.”
In the letter, the attorneys general put forth additional recommendations to better effectuate Title IX’s broad protections against discrimination, including:
- Prohibiting schools from relying on alleged fairness or safety concerns to disallow transgender students from participating consistent with their gender identity, at a minimum, at the elementary school, middle school, high school, and intramural college sports levels.
- Requiring schools to rely on student self-identification to determine whether a student is transgender, and eliminating requirements such as blood testing, physical examinations, medical documentation or medication interventions, or reliance on government-issued identification documents, for transgender youth to participate fully in sports.
- Specifying that the Federal Rule allows more protective state policies, like those of New Jersey
Attorneys General Platkin and James were joined by the attorneys general of California, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.
This matter was handled by Deputy Attorneys General Samuel Rubinstein and Justine Longa, under the supervision of Special Litigation Section Chief Jessica Palmer and Assistant Section Chief Andrew Yang, within the Division of Law’s Affirmative Civil Enforcement Practice Group, and by Iris Bromberg, Interim Senior Advisor for Affirmative Enforcement within the Division on Civil Rights.
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As written in paragraph 7 above: “….. there are an estimated 300,000 transgender youth between the ages of thirteen and seventeen in the United States. ”
Let’s do some simple math here: 300,000/350,000,000 (the estimated US population) equals 8/10 of 1 percent of the population! How much time/effort/expense/attention should the overpaid bureaucracy expend in seeking DEI for this portion of the population, while at the same time undermining long-fought for/acceptable standards that have taken decades to codify?
Aren’t there more important issues needing the attention of these overpaid, underworked bureauCRAPS?? There MUST be larger segments of the US population that are in need of attention and/or assistance – those who are in need of food, housing, basic education, medical care, psychological attention, etc…
Wake up and use your eyes, they usually can’t fool you. Dogs are not cats, fish are not horses – Men are men, and women are women!
so much for women’s sports
Kick ‘‘em In the nuts!
This is horrible! What about protecting the girls? Forcing girls to compete against boys is just cruel. This is the kind of thing that might even force east coast democrats to vote republican.
>b>
Girls have fallen out of favor as the Victim Du Jour.
Didn’t you get the message?
…and the best part is ANY MALE can call himself a woman and compete.
AND NO ONE CAN CHALLENGE HIM/her.
There are NO tests, requirements, legal processes, state or federal paperwork to declare a change of gender.
There are NO bodily changes required – no required hormones to take, no required surgeries to perform. There is not even a requirement to modify your appearance via clothing, hairstyle, etc.
You just have to say so.
You can even be Gender Fluid and change back and forth minute by minute.
Insanity.
Even worse than Tulip Mania or Salem Witch Trials.
meanwhile in Florida they have not lost their minds….
https://twitter.com/GovRonDeSantis/status/1658865089665957889
I would like to know if any transgender girl identifying as male would be allowed to or even qualify to
play on a boys sports team….seems like that would say it all about the unfairness of this
It would be/is allowed but, is very rare. That is because boys are bigger and stronger than girls, so it is not unfair to the boys if there happens to be a girl that wants to play on a boys team. There was a girl kicker on a football team and I think one on a baseball team once. It has only become a problem since boys pretending to be girls have started to compete in girls events (and unfairly crushing them).
Cathy, just for the record, according to the terms of this idiocy…
a “transgender girl” is a male who thinks he is a female
a “transgender boy” is a female who thinks she is a male.
So….
you question about a “transgender girl identifying as male” is about a boy who thinks he is a girl identifying as a boy, aka a boy who identifies as a boy.
So to answer your question, “would a boy who thinks he is a boy be allowed to play on a boys sports team?”, the answer is YES. boys who think they are boys are still alowed to play on boys teams.
….but that may change… you never know what will happen in crazy-world…
If you were born a boy (regardless of how you identify) you should only be allowed to play on boys teams and use boys locker rooms. Same goes for girls.