The Trump administration launched Title IX probes Wednesday into complaints about transgender-athlete policies at 18 school districts, junior colleges and other educational entities, acting a day after the Supreme Court began its review into state bans on biological males in female sports.
The organizations under investigation fall in 10 Democrat-led states that allow students to compete in sports based on gender identity: California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Washington.
Those under investigation include the Jurupa Unified School District in California, where transgender student A.B. Hernandez won two girls’ state track titles last year and played during the fall season on the girls’ volleyball team, prompting at least 10 teams to forfeit rather than compete against a biological male.
“The complaints assert that these entities, which range from K-12 school districts to postsecondary education institutions to state departments of education, maintain policies or practices that discriminate on the basis of sex by permitting students to participate in sports based on their ‘gender identity,’ not biological sex,” the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights said in a statement.
“These policies jeopardize both the safety and the equal opportunities of women in educational programs and activities,” said the statement.
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday over state laws in Idaho and West Virginia that require students to compete based on sex at birth, both of which were challenged by female-identifying transgender athletes.
“In the same week that the Supreme Court hears oral arguments on the future of Title IX, OCR is aggressively pursuing allegations of discrimination against women and girls by entities which reportedly allow males to compete in women’s sports,” said Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Kimberly Richey.
“Time and again, the Trump Administration has made its position clear: violations of women’s rights, dignity, and fairness are unacceptable,” Ms. Richey said. “We will leave no stone unturned in these investigations to uphold women’s right to equal access in education programs — a fight that started over half a century ago and is far from finished.”
The entities under investigation include the Hawaii State Department of Education and the New York City Department of Education.
Also listed was Santa Rosa Junior College in California, where a biological male who identifies as female was permitted to play women’s volleyball last season, in keeping with the California Community College Athletic Association’s policy.
The vast majority of college sports teams now prohibit biological males in women’s sports following rule changes by the NCAA and National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, shifting the transgender-athlete debate to the junior colleges and high schools.
The investigations come with the Trump administration already tangling with blue-state Democrats over their policies on transgender athletes.
Last year, the administration opened an investigation into Maine and sued California over their transgender-athlete policy, saying they violate Title IX, the federal civil-rights law barring sex discrimination in education.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison sued the administration in April over President Trump’s executive orders on gender ideology, which declare there are two sexes for purposes of federal law and threaten to withhold funding from states that allow students to compete based on gender identity.
Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia allow scholastic athletes to compete based on gender identity.
