Title IX has long recognized biological differences between the two sexes, but the Biden administration insists that sex is effectively the same as "gender identity." The implications of this redefinition aren’t just theoretical.
We are both part of a lawsuit in which a federal district court in Kentucky recently stood up for the privacy and safety of women and girls, halting the Biden administration’s attempt to rewrite Title IX through a new rule that would have allowed men who identify as females into women’s locker rooms, restrooms, and showers.
One of us is Patrick Morrisey, the attorney general of West Virginia. I count it a privilege to represent my state’s interest in protecting women’s safety and privacy.
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The other one of us is Adaleia Cross, a 15-year-old female athlete represented by Alliance Defending Freedom who has competed in a variety of track-and-field events — including discus, pole vault, and shot put — since middle school.
President Joe Biden gutted the true meaning of Title IX regulations. The result harms female athletes and forces them to compete with biological males. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
I was recently forced to compete against a male athlete identifying as a girl. Predictably, the male student beat me many times and bumped me from a conference championship I had worked all season to qualify for.
Simply put, with a biological male competing alongside me, I began losing opportunities to compete because of the male student outperforming me. Until April 2023, I was in the top three on my team for discus, and I was usually in the top three or four for shot put as well.
And when off the field, as I shared in my affidavit filed in court, other female teammates and I were forced to share locker rooms and restrooms with a male student. But women and girls should never be forced to face a boy when we change or shower in a restroom or locker room.
In addition, we can all agree that no one should experience sexual harassment in these places. We must protect women and private spaces and ensure women are not put in uncomfortable situations, as I was.
My affidavit contains a simple request, true to the heart of Title IX: "I want girls to have an opportunity to compete on a level and safe playing field, and I know that will never happen if boys are allowed to compete on girls’ sports teams. It seems that people have forgotten the whole point of making girls’ sports separate. It was impossible for girls to compete in boys’ sports safely and competitively. Letting biological males into women’s sports defeats the whole purpose of even having them in the first place. We simply cannot compete with men."
West Virginia state officials rightfully recognize biological reality. Our legislature passed the Save Women’s Sports Act to buttress Title IX’s protections and defend women’s sports. Yet the Biden administration’s new rule would override even that law.
In the face of this not-so-slight-of-hand erasure of women’s rights, we (West Virginia and Adaleia) sued the Biden administration in May. Joining us was a coalition of states — Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana and Virginia — and Christian Educators Association International, also represented by ADF.
Title IX is simple: It demands that girls and women get their fair share of opportunities in education, and its regulations make clear that this can be accomplished in school athletic programs by having "separate teams for members of each sex."
And because of the enduring physical differences between men and women and importance of privacy, Title IX has always allowed the sex-specific spaces — like bathrooms and locker rooms — that are ubiquitous across the nation.
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The administration’s notion to include "gender identity" in its definition of sex deprives girls of the opportunity to continue to get a fair shake. The rule forces states like West Virginia to accept radical gender ideology in their schools. And this administration has done so in blatant defiance of Congress’ repeated refusal to extend Title IX’s protections to anything other than sex.
The sweeping Title IX mandate by the Biden administration would upend schools’ long-lawful practices protecting student privacy, unfairly undermine women’s academic and athletic achievements and related advancements in society, and punish states for following their laws. Federal bureaucrats have no right to rewrite the statutes Congress passes, let alone fundamentally change what it means to be a man or a woman.
Allowing such a mandate would be a shame because the impact of Title IX on women’s sports has been profound. Before the law, just one in 27 young women played sports. Today, that figure is 10 in 25.
West Virginia state officials rightfully recognize biological reality. Our legislature passed the Save Women’s Sports Act to buttress Title IX’s protections and defend women’s sports. Yet the Biden administration’s new rule would override even that law.
In the guise of confronting "gender identity discrimination," the administration’s Department of Education is, simply put, attempting to abolish sex-based distinctions in educational activities and programs.
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In the end, Title IX is about basic fairness. We must honor and defend this law to guarantee future generations of girls and women benefit from its many protections. Rest assured we will fight these radical changes to Title IX with every available tool in our arsenal.
Women deserve nothing less.
Adaleia Cross is a 15-year-old student in West Virginia.
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