A federal court in Connecticut on Friday considered a motion to dismiss a suit alleging that state public schools unfairly disadvantage women in sports by allowing transgender athletes to compete against them.
Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union, as well as those representing the Connecticut Association of Schools, Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, argued that schools were not in violation of Title IX, a provision prohibiting sex discrimination in federally funded schools, because the text of the statute is silent on gender identity’s role in sexual discrimination.
The attorneys said that because Title IX doesn’t determine discrimination based on individual athletic results, the fact that several transgender female athletes in the state have outperformed most women does not rise to a discrimination concern.
On the other side, Roger Brooks, a senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, argued that the schools do violate Title IX because sports are based in physiology, not gender identity. This means, Brooks said, that what the case boils down to is a precise definition of “meaning of ‘sex’ in the athletic regulations of Title IX.”
“If sex in the athletic regulations of Title IX must be construed as gender identity, then this court should dismiss this case,” he said, adding that the core contention of the four women who brought forward the suit is that their transgender competitors have inherent physical advantages that come with having been born male.
As the rules stand right now, Brooks said, schools in Connecticut are only giving biological women in sports “extra lessons in losing.” Title IX, which was passed in 1972, adheres to a biological definition of sex, Brooks said, adding that unless that definition is retained in law, future disputes of this nature won’t have the chance to get off the ground.
“There’s nothing left to talk about if we are not allowed to make that distinction,” he said.
Joshua Block, a senior attorney at the ACLU, accused Brooks of using the case as a “shot across the bow” in a much larger debate over transgender participation in women’s sports.
Robert Chatigny, the district court judge presiding over the case, said that he would decide whether or not to dismiss the case within the next three weeks.
After the hearing, Brooks told reporters that the stakes are high in the case’s outcome.
“If the ACLU gets its way, women’s sports will no longer exist,” he said. “There will be men’s sports, and there will be semi-co-ed sports. And women and girls in Connecticut will be losers.”
In the past year, several courts have offered varying opinions on school-related transgender issues. An appeals court in August ruled that a Virginia student had been discriminated against by not being allowed to use the men’s restroom. That same month, an Idaho district court issued an injunction against a state law banning male participation in women’s sports.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
In the Connecticut case specifically, former President Donald Trump threw his support behind the women suing the schools. The Biden administration pulled that support this week in a letter from the Justice Department. One of the plaintiffs, high school track star Alanna Smith, said she was “disappointed” with the new administration’s decision.
The Biden administration’s attitude toward the larger issue is unclear. Biden’s attorney general nominee, Merrick Garland, dodged questions about transgender participation in sports, calling the subject a “difficult societal question.”
