Just before the Easter holiday weekend, the Biden administration quietly released some new thoughts on their proposed Title IX rule changes around girls' and women’s sports – which are likely to be officially released in May. This politically charged attempt to soften the blow of the rule changes does not address the core issue of the presumptive redefinition of “sex” to include gender identity.
This concern was affirmed in a letter to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona in February, organized by the Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies along with a coalition of lawyers, subject-matter experts, parents, civil rights groups, and former education officials. The letter asserts that the administration “does not have the legal authority to issue regulations that would permit biological males who identify as females to compete in sex-separated women’s sports and to use the intimate facilities and shared spaces of female students.”
Let’s be real. Scientifically, trans is not a “sex.” Trans is a fabricated, unscientific concept based on a choice often including the manipulation or removal of an individual's body parts and one’s physiological hormone composition to “identify” as the opposite sex. Science, specifically microbiology, physiology, and chemistry clearly reveal that humans are born with XX or XY DNA that defines their sex at birth and their related psyche and physique. Yes, there are relatively rare instances that produce a different sex gene sequence, but this is understood to be an aberration, not a new norm or justification for the cultural and social “gender identity” called “trans.”
Having said this, in a free country, individuals are free to “identify” as “trans.” This is their natural right to choose based on individual liberty protected by the Constitution. In that sense, I am not anti-trans. What is at issue here, however, is the truth about how to define trans. Given the scientific reality of trans and gender identity, these terms are not interchangeable with the words “sex” or “sexual identity.” Based on that alone, there should be no laws or policies that define trans as a “sex” or a “sexual identity.” A trans person remains scientifically male, or female based on their DNA, and it is impossible to scientifically dispute that fact.
This discussion is relevant to the proposed Title IX changes as they presume a redefinition of sex by neatly referring to “trans” as a “sex.” By swapping in the fabricated concept of gender identity for “sex” the administration is making a giant assumptive leap.
But there is more. Who is focusing on the discrimination against girls and women in the proposed Title IX changes? Recently a courageous female athlete, Riley Gaines, stood up for women’s sports and was locked in a room and harassed for three hours for doing so. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that this is a blatant show of hate and discrimination. The reality that the proposed Title IX changes could introduce sex-based discrimination against women is clear.
On December 30, 2022, the 11th circuit court reversed the decision of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida related to the use of opposite-sex restrooms. In my view, the majority opinion here is relevant to trans participants on opposite-sex sports teams. The Court ruled that the equal protection clause does not authorize transgender-identifying students to use the facilities of the opposite sex. In addition, the majority opinion written by Judge Lagoa begins by describing the dispute as involving “the unremarkable—and nearly universal practice of separating school bathrooms based on biological sex.”
Judge Lagoa mentions that Florida’s St John’s County school board policy at issue in the case “advances the important governmental objective of protecting students’ privacy in school bathrooms.” This point highlights the right to girls’ privacy when they use the girls' bathroom. This is noteworthy considering the Title IX change which would by default allow trans bio boys to use the girls’ locker rooms when playing girls' sports. Keep in mind the female student whose sexual assault in a girl’s bathroom by a trans bio boy wearing a skirt was swept under the rug by Loudoun County school officials in 2021.
College and K-12 kids have suffered enough under the heavy hand of an agenda-laden Biden administration. It is time for the woke cultural agenda items to be taken off the table and for our rights and liberties to be protected and honored once again by our government. Parents and citizens, continue to push back against the radical “gender identity” agenda that is not content with making their own choices and living their life but is seeking to refashion the law in its unscientific image.
Tamra Farah serves as National Senior Advisor to ParentsKnowBest.com and is on all social media @tamrafarah.