The International Olympic Committee can do whatever it wants, and that includes rigging the game against biological women by allowing transgender women to compete against them in the Olympics. But universities, at least those receiving federal funding, probably cannot. Title IX mandates that federally funded universities, including private schools, grant female students equal access to education, including athletics.
Lia Thomas, a biological male who identities as a woman, who swims at Penn, is currently smashing Ivy League records in the 500-yard freestyle, the 200-yard freestyle, and the 1,650-yard freestyle. The NCAA claims the situation is fair because Thomas has been on testosterone suppression treatment for at least a year. The results, however, speak for themselves.
Title IX doesn’t mandate that universities spend equally on men’s and women’s athletic programs overall, but it does do so specifically for athletic scholarships. Should transgender women prove as dominant as Thomas, how long until universities supposedly paying for “women’s sports” actually start spending more on biological men, denying women much-needed financial aid?
The Biden administration reversed course from the Democrat’s predecessor, proclaiming unequivocally that Title IX protects discrimination from gender identity. But should the current trend continue, women’s access to an equal share of athletic scholarships may be subsumed by transgender athletes. After all, while Thomas does perform slightly less well after more than a year of suppressing testosterone, he still performs astoundingly better than his naturally female counterparts. Here’s a breakdown from a developmental biologist.
So if athletes like Thomas remain at a biological advantage over biological women due to the irreversible strength wrought by male puberty, would giving a transgender athlete a scholarship intended for female athletes constitute reason for a Title IX investigation? The Education Department has faced a complaint from female students about being passed over for transgender athletes before. But while the Trump administration sided with the girls against the state’s policy regarding transgender students as eligible for the sports team they identify with, the courts remain an open question. Unlike the debate over professional sports, the heart of the question is about access to education, not just the messy science of the gender-identity wars.
