A court document that is a part of the lawsuit against the Biden Administration for its expansion of Title IX claims that a transgender middle school athlete in West Virginia knocked female athletes out of competition over 700 times.
The documents’ claims represent a vital component of the suit, which seeks to improve that the changes to Title IX put in place by Education Secretary Miguel Cardona do, in fact, impact girls’ and women’s sports.
In April, Cardona expanded Title IX to say that sex discrimination includes discrimination based on gender identity as well as sexual orientation. However, the administration has steadfastly maintained that the rule changes will not impact women’s sports.
U.S. President Joe Biden onstage during the 2024 140th Morehouse College Commencement Ceremony at Morehouse College on May 19, 2024, in Atlanta, Georgia. (Paras Griffin/WireImage)
Buoyed by the report out of West Virginia, the Alliance for Defending Freedom (ADF), a nonprofit civil rights firm, seeks to stop the implementation of Biden’s Title IX rule changes set to take effect on August 1 and to allow state laws that ban transgender athletes from playing on girls’ sports teams to remain the law in those states.
“The Biden administration’s radical redefinition of sex will upend the equal opportunities that women and girls have enjoyed for 50 years under Title IX and will threaten their safety and privacy at every level,” ADF Senior Counsel Rachel Rouleau said in a statement.
“While the administration claims this change won’t affect sports, it has already made its position clear that men who identify as women should compete in women’s sports under Title IX,” Rouleau added.
Biden’s efforts at trans inclusion have directly impacted the ADF’s client.
A federal court ruled against the ADF when they attempted to prevent the trans athlete from competing against girls. As a result, according to the document, the trans athlete defeated over 700 girls in track and field competitions.
🚨🚨FIVE middle school female athletes in West Virginia refuse to throw shot put against male, Becky Pepper-Jackson.
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) April 19, 2024
This comes just 2 days after the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the WV law that says you must compete in the category that matches your sex.
It's a… pic.twitter.com/RzMgh4jVRU
Roleau stressed that the federal court’s decision against their client didn’t just hurt girls on the playing field but put them in an awkward and potentially dangerous position in the locker room.
“Our client has also lost her right to use the women’s locker room free from harassment and without a male present. This egregious example is just one of many ongoing difficulties girls are facing with this illegal rewrite of federal law and vast executive authority overreach,” Roleau explained.
The ADF’s legal action is part of a broader, 20-state coalition launched by Tennessee Attorney General John Skrmetti that seeks to assert the right of states to prevent males from infiltrating girls and women’s sports.
“Fifty years ago, Congress revolutionized our educational system,” the ADF motion states. “In 1970, nearly 34% of working women lacked high-school diplomas. In 2016, it was 6%. In 1972, 7% of high-school varsity athletes were women. In 2018, it was 43%. The change occurred because the people’s representatives balanced various interests and produced legislation centered on 37 words in [Title IX Of The Education Amendments Of 1972]: no person shall be excluded from, denied benefits of, or subjected to discrimination in educational programs on the basis of sex.'”
“A different sort of revolution took place a few weeks ago. On April 29, unelected Department of Education officials published Title IX rules that add the concept of gender identity—’ an individual’s sense of their gender.’ The new rules sometimes even prioritize this subjective concept over someone’s objective sex, requiring schools to allow some men to use women’s restrooms, to change in women’s locker rooms, to shower in women’s showers, and to compete in women’s sports,” the motion asserts.
“The result is that Title IX’s primary beneficiaries are denied the privacy, dignity, equality, and fairness needed to benefit from our educational system.
“None of this is justified — or justifiable,” it claims.
