Title Lyin’?
Trump spoke again about banning transgender athletes from competing in school sports again. Let’s unpack this culture war issue for what it is…
First, a little primer to give us some background.
In June of 1972, Title IX was enacted by Congress and signed into law, prohibiting sex discrimination in any educational program or activity receiving federal funds. The major author and sponsor of Title IX was Patsy Mink, Democratic Representative of Hawaii, the first woman of color and female Asian-American elected to Congress, with a big assist from Democrat Representative Edith Green of Oregon, Chair of the Subcommittee on Education. The passage of Title IX was not a slam-dunk and sustained numerous attacks, most notably by Republican senators, such as Jesse Helms, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association, known as the NCAA. Despite this, Title IX was signed and submitted to Congress by Gerald Ford in 1975 and it was approved. In 1971, before Title IX passed, only one percent of college athletic budgets went into women’s sports programs.
According to the Women’s Sports Foundation (WSF), founded in 1974 by tennis champion Billie Jean King, categorical bans of transgender athletes should be legally impermissible under Title IX. “As the primary mission of WSF is to advocate for inclusion of all girls and women, we believe it to be imperative that any policy governing transgender athlete participation should encourage a pathway to inclusion, and any restrictions should be contingent on the level of competition and play. At the youth level, WSF believes that sports participation policies should focus on the ability for youth to play and compete consistent with their gender identity.” They signed a statement with 16 other equal rights organizations, including the National Women’s Law Center, the National Women’s Political Caucus, Girls, Inc., Legal Momentum, the American Association of University Women and Equal Rights Advocates and others in support of inclusion, writing that “as organizations that fight every day for equal opportunities for all women and girls, we speak from experience and expertise when we say that nondiscrimination protections for transgender people — including women and girls who are transgender — are not at odds with women’s equality or well-being, but advance them” and that “we support laws and policies that protect transgender people from discrimination, including in participation in sports, and reject the suggestion that cisgender women and girls benefit from the exclusion of women and girls who happen to be transgender.”
It is necessary to consider what those people and organizations who have been fighting for inclusion and equality every day as part of their mission have to say about the moral panic over transgender inclusion in school athletic programs. I will grant that it is a fuzzier issue than most, especially when it plays on emotions, which I am guessing is exactly what draws Republicans to suddenly care about female athletics out of thin air like this. The fact that they sound less like champions for female athletics, and more like paternalistic protectors who are the last ones standing between your daughter and some broad-shouldered pervert in the locker room or the swimming pool should tell you most of what you need to know.
According to a piece published in The Atlantic, The Department of Education announced recently that Title IX does not apply to name, image and likeness payments paid directly to athletes from colleges and universities. Next month, a federal judge is expected to approve a $2.8 billion class-action settlement that will finally allow athletes to be receive name, image and likeness payments from their school rather than through outside collectives. The schools that choose to opt in to the settlement are expected to have a salary cap of up to $20.5 million each to distribute to players. Under Biden administration guidance, they would have had to distribute that money between male and female athletes in proportion to their participation rates. Under Trump, that money is expected to flow overwhelmingly to male athletes, mostly football and basketball players. The University of Georgia, for example, plans to give 75 percent of its revenue-sharing to the football team, 15 percent to men’s basketball, 5 percent to women’s basketball, and the remaining 5 percent to all other sports. Other sports colleges are expected to follow a similar formula of distribution.
How’s that for upholding the sanctity of female athletics?
All this aside, whether or not you believe their intentions are honest, we know that this is a culture war issue because of how the same people who are supposed torchbearers for our young athletes show up for girls and women in other ways. Republicans have consistently and with utmost cruelty cut funding for pregnancy prevention and access to reproductive choice by “bringing it to the states” when they overturned Roe v. Wade, the first time the Supreme Court rescinded a fundamental right. The same girls who have opportunities denied to them but can win scholarships through their athleticism are most at risk of unwanted pregnancies and dying during pregnancy: People of color who lack financial resources. But you’re trying to tell me that suddenly these legislators will fight because it’s the right thing to do about who’s on a running track with them?
Do they think we are that stupid and gullible? Apparently so.
It’s not “just” reproductive choice. These same legislators who want us to believe they are suddenly so very concerned about women and girls thriving advocate for abstinence-only sex education over evidence-based comprehensive sex education, setting the stage for higher rates of unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections; are refusing to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act; work to decimate social safety net programs like SNAP, WIC, and Medicaid. Any guesses as to who constitutes the majority of beneficiaries of these programs? Women and their children, including school age athletes who were assigned female at birth.
They talking about standing up for female athletes when they’re doing everything in their power to undermine and even harm those who are outside their sphere of concern. We know an obvious culture war deflection when we see it. I wish the alleged supporters of female athletics would see the very clear true colors of politicians who are truly hateful to women and girls when it comes to policies that directly affect millions of lives and not just hang on to this niche bait-and-switch that riles up the base.
I get it. You want to feel like you’re standing up for something just. You’re not. You’ve been duped. This duping, though, is demonstrably harming millions of people if you think that your bigotry against trans people is a righteous cause and you stay very much on the surface. We need your help against all the MAGA Republicans have thrown at us! Getting riled up about a niche issue isn’t it.
Marla Rose is cofounder of VeganStreet.com.
