President Biden calls on schools across the country to allow transgender athletes to participate in the sport of their gender identity, in an executive order aimed at “preventing discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation.
“Children must be able to learn without worrying about being denied access to the toilet, locker room or school sports,” reads the new order issued on the first day of his presidency.
The order is a strong signal that the Department of Justice will enforce it through Title IX – and schools that do not comply will run the risk of losing money.
The order also calls for equal treatment “regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation” in the workplace and in health care. “All persons must receive equal treatment under the law, regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation,” the order reads.
The order points to the Supreme Court case Bostock v. Clayton County (2020) where the court contains Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibits discrimination “because of … sex”, including discrimination on the grounds of gender identity and sexual orientation.
COMMANDED IMMIGRATION BILL CHANGES ‘STRANGER’ TO ‘UNMADE’ IN OVERVIEW
Pray, in order, linked to intersectional discrimination and write that discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation is often accompanied by discrimination based on race or disability.
Heads of agencies are ordered to re-evaluate their Title VII policy or any legislation prohibiting sex discrimination.
Transgender athletes in schools were a popular topic of debate last year, when 17 states introduced bills restricting athletes’ participation in sports of their gender awarded during their birth. Only one became law – in Idaho. The Trump administration supported the ban, but a federal judge temporarily blocked its implementation following a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
The Trump administration also intervened in Connecticut when the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) passed a law allowing transgender high school girls to compete on girls’ sports teams that violate the title IX right of girls assigned at birth. The DOE threatened the Connecticut schools with raising money or facing it through the DOJ, but that did not happen either. The government stepped in to support a case of several cisgender girls who wanted to block state policy. The plaintiffs argued that female runners had an unfair physical advantage.
COMMANDMENT TO MANAGE MASK WEAR ON FEDERAL GROUND
The case has yet to be decided.
Currently, 14 states and the District of Columbia have policies similar to those of Connecticut, according to Transathlete.com. Fourteen others allow transgender participation under certain conditions, such as hormone treatments or other evidence that the athlete is transient, according to the organization.
Last year, a group of Republican senators introduced a bill that would repeal the federal funding of schools that allow transgender girls to participate in women’s sports, but it did not go very far. Former Senator Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., Who sponsored the bill, highlighted a dispute in Connecticut where two contestants, who were born male but identified as female, won 15 girls’ championships for girls.
Erin Buzuvis, a professor at the Western New England School of Law who specializes in gender and discrimination in education and athletics, told The Associated Press the case in Connecticut could ‘evaporate’ if the new government does not want to push for it.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
“The Idaho situation is different because it is a state law that is contested under the equal protection doctrine,” Buzuvis said. “It can set a kind of national standard about the kind of policy that states may or may not ban. But that does not necessarily mean that the case would say, ‘Here is the policy that all states should have.’ “
The Associated Press contributed to this report.