A federal judge on Monday dismissed claims that Harvard violated Title IX by allowing a transgender swimmer to compete in a 2022 women’s swim championship.
As reported by The Harvard Crimson student newspaper, the suit was filed in early February by three former University of Pennsylvania swimmers against Harvard, Penn, the NCAA, and the Ivy League Council of Presidents. In the suit, Grace Estabrook, Ellen Holmquist and Margot Kaczorowski accused Harvard of breaking federal nondiscrimination law by allowing transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, a teammate to all three plaintiffs, to compete in the the 2022 Ivy League Swimming and Diving Championships, hosted by Harvard.
A federal judge on Monday dismissed claims that Harvard violated Title IX  by allowing a transgender swimmer to compete in a 2022 women’s swim championship.
As reported by The Harvard Crimson student newspaper, the suit was filed in early February by three former University of Pennsylvania swimmers against Harvard, Penn, the NCAA, and the Ivy League Council of Presidents. In the suit, Grace Estabrook, Ellen Holmquist and Margot Kaczorowski accused Harvard of breaking federal nondiscrimination law by allowing transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, a teammate to all three plaintiffs, to compete in the the 2022 Ivy League Swimming and Diving Championships, hosted by Harvard.
Per the reporting of Laurel Shugart, lawyers representing Harvard asked to be dismissed from the suit in April, arguing that Harvard did not make decisions around eligibility and followed NCAA policy that at the time permitted transgender athletes to compete on women’s teams if their testosterone levels were below a predetermined limit.
"The suit also alleges that Harvard violated Title IX by failing to provide sex-separated locker rooms where cisgender female athletes could change separately from transgender teammates and competitors," Shugart wrote. "Lawyers for the University argued again that the provided locker rooms were compliant with NCAA policy."
U.S. District Judge William G. Young, a graduate of and former lecturer at Harvard, ruled that the university hosting a championship in compliance with existing standards did not constitute a separate Title IX violation from claims against Penn and the NCAA. The claims against Harvard alone did not have precedent under Title IX law, he wrote, as reported by Shugart.
"Proceedings for the remaining case against Penn and the NCAA will be paused until Gaines v. NCAA — another Title IX case over the NCAA’s former eligibility policies for transgender athletes, filed by former University of Kentucky swimmer and anti-trans activist Riley Gaines — is decided in Georgia’s federal district court," Shugart wrote.
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