Harvard Law School LGBTQ+Advocacy Clinic, National Women’s Law Center Release Toolkit on Latest Title IX Guidance
Clinic Toolkit Follows Biden Administration Proposed Guidance That Will Protect Trans Kids’ Ability To Participate In Student Athletics
Media inquiries may contact Rebecca Kling, rebecca@betterworldcollaborative.com
CAMBRIDGE, MA – The Biden Administration has issued a proposed rule that affirms that Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972—commonly referred to as Title IX—secures the rights of transgender, non-binary, and intersex students to play school sports free from blanket discriminatory exclusions. Following the Administration’s proposal, the Harvard Law School LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic and the National Women’s Law Center released a toolkit with background information on Title IX and information on how members of the public can support the positive aspects of this new rule while continuing to push for explicit protection from discrimination for all transgender, non-binary, and intersex student athletes.
“At their best, student sports programs help student athletes grow, build community, and learn about teamwork," said Maya Satya Reddy, former professional golfer and Clinical Fellow at the Harvard Law School LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic. “Unfortunately, anti-LGBTQ sentiment drove me from professional golf, and today anti-trans discrimination is targeting trans student athletes across the United States. The Biden Administration’s proposed Title IX rule makes it clear that prejudice and blanket discrimination have no place in student athletics, but the proposed rule may leave open routes to discriminate against some transgender children. The toolkit we released today describes how all children are negatively affected when trans kids are banned from sports; in particular, we know that bans invite gender policing of all students by allowing anyone to challenge any student athlete’s gender and forces young athletes to prove if they ‘truly’ are a woman or girl. This type of sex policing impacts anyone who doesn’t conform to sex-based stereotypes, and especially falls hard on athletes of color who do not conform to white standards of femininity, amplifying existing racial disparities in sports. We need the public to voice that there is no room for transphobia or racism in sports. Compromising with discrimination is discrimination.”
“Anti-trans athletics bills, like the ones being introduced in statehouses across the country, are a distraction from the real issues facing women and girls in sports” said Shiwali Patel, Senior Counsel at the National Women’s Law Center. “Supporting women and girls in sports means increasing access to resources for all or addressing the rampant sexual abuse of student athletes, not attacking trans youth. Likewise, some of the worst anti-trans athletics policies would subject all women and girls to humiliating and invasive ‘gender verification’ procedures. These types of procedures have historically disproportionately targeted BIPOC women and girls, but all women and girls are harmed when laws rely on sex stereotypes. When it issues the final rule, the Biden administration must make it clear that such invasive and harmful procedures have no place in student athletics.”
“While the Biden Administration has taken a big step towards inclusion by rejecting blanket bans that keep all trans kids out of sports, the Department of Education should explicitly affirm a presumption of inclusion of all students in sports consistent with their gender identity and provide greater clarity so that schools do not discriminate against trans kids based on transphobia, including offensive myths about trans students, their bodies, and their abilities in sports,” said Alexander Chen, Founding Director of the Harvard Law School LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic. “The Biden Administration must make clear that this new standard does not allow for harmful, stigmatizing, and unfair policies that harm all children. This is necessary to ensure the rule is not weaponized against the marginalized communities it aims to protect.”
The Title IX rule is now open for public comments until May 15, 2023.
The Harvard Law School LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic engages in cutting-edge impact litigation, legislative and policy advocacy, and public education on behalf of the LGBTQ+ community. The Clinic aims to shape the future of LGBTQ+ advocacy by focusing on advancing the rights of LGBTQ+ people as whole persons embedded in the wider fabric of society and their local communities, with a particular emphasis on issues affecting the most marginalized members of the LGBTQ+ community.
The National Women’s Law Center fights for gender justice—in the courts, in public policy, and in our society—working across the issues that are central to the lives of women and girls. We use the law in all its forms to change culture and drive solutions to the gender inequity that shapes our society and to break down the barriers that harm all of us—especially women of color, LGBTQ people, and low-income women and families. For 50 years, we have been on the leading edge of every major legal and policy victory for women.