DOE to Launch Title IX Investigations Into Two Athletic Associations

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights will launch investigations into the Minnesota State High School League and the California Interscholastic Federation, both of which publicly announced plans to violate federal anti-discrimination laws related to girls’ and women’s sports.

This includes the possibility of allowing male athletes to compete in women’s sports and use women’s intimate facilities, according to Wednesday's announcement posted on the DOE website. 

In a public statement released after President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled "Protecting Women’s Sports," MSHSL and CIF announced their intentions to abide by state law as it relates to girls’ and women’s sports in violation of federal anti-discrimination laws, according to the DOE announcement. Both state laws allow athletes to participate on teams based on "an individual’s subjective gender identity rather than biological sex, even though biological sex is the basis for Title IX protections," the DOE language reads. "State laws do not override federal anti-discrimination laws, and these entities and their member schools remain subject to Title IX and its implementing regulations." 

“The Minnesota State High School League and the California Interscholastic Federation are free to engage in all the meaningless virtue-signaling that they want, but at the end of the day they must abide by federal law,” said acting assistant secretary for civil rights Craig Trainor in the DOE release. “OCR’s Chicago and San Francisco regional offices will conduct directed investigations into both organizations to ensure that female athletes in these states are treated with the dignity, respect, and equality that the Trump Administration demands. I would remind these organizations that history does not look kindly on entities and states that actively opposed the enforcement of federal civil rights laws that protect women and girls from discrimination and harassment.”  

"Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports" states that “it is the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities,” and to take “all appropriate action to affirmatively protect all-female athletic opportunities and all-female locker rooms and thereby provide the equal opportunity guaranteed by Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972.” 

This is just the last DOE move on the transgender sports front.

Related: DOJ to Investigate Reported Title IX Violations, Athletics Policies

Last week, OCR launched directed investigations into San Jose State University, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association for reported violations of Title IX. OCR also made it clear that it is reviewing athletic participation policies at a number of schools to evaluate their compliance with Title IX protections for female athletes.