Anti-discrimination law is being used to discriminate

Title IX was first passed 43 years ago as a way to increase the number of women athletes on college campuses. But Title IX has since been expanded to force colleges and universities to play investigator, judge and jury for accusations of sexual assault. The law has been reinterpreted to consider sexual assault a form of gender discrimination — even when the accuser and accused are of the same gender — that must therefore be handled by the university.

Gavora explained that liberals have only been upset about the law’s expansiveness since one of their own — Laura Kipnis — found herself ensnared in its grasp. Kipnis was accused of violating Title IX over an article she wrote criticizing the way it was being used to accuse anyone and everyone of assault for various comments and sleights (yes, the accusation was that absurd).

But Gavora wanted to remind everyone that Title IX has long been used as a “political weapon” by those who believe women need to be given artificial achievement in order to be equal to men. Gavora discusses a lawsuit against Brown University in which simply providing more opportunities for women to compete in sports wasn’t enough; the court decided the school had to find a way to make women interested in participating. And, failing that, male athletes had to be cut from programs in order to achieve gender parity.

“In effect the ruling said that Brown women didn’t know what they wanted. They only thought they were dancers or actors or musicians,” Gavora wrote. “They had to be taught that they were really athletes. They didn’t know what was good for them but the government did.”

This was long before the 2011 “Dear Colleague” letter that forced colleges and universities to begin adjudicating sexual assault.

First male athletes were targeted, and now male students in general, as well as the academics who criticize the practice, are in the cross hairs. Gavora asks: “Who will be next?”