Two female athletes at Washington high schools are asking the Trump administration to stop a male from competing against them during their track season.
Soleil Hoefer, a senior at Prosser High School, and Kora Lengerich, a freshman at Gonzaga Preparatory School, urged the Department of Education’s (ED) Office of Civil Rights (OCR) to investigate a policy that is “violating the rights of girls’ by depriving them of equal opportunity for athletic participation and victory” in a Title IX complaint filed Wednesday by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).
Current Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) policy still allows athletes to participate in events “consistent with their gender identity,” despite President Donald Trump’s Feb. 5 executive order on “Keeping Men Out Of Women’s Sports.”
A male athlete who won last year’s female state championship in the 400-meter race continues to dominate the division, the complaint notes.
“Kora has already lost a podium spot to this athlete, and Soleil will likely have to run against the athlete soon,” the complaint states. “It is fundamentally unfair that despite all of their hard work and discipline, Soleil and Kora may be deprived of the thrill of victory because Washington forces them to race against males with inherent biological advantages. Soleil and Kora urge OCR to step in to prevent this violation of federal law and protect the right of women and girls to compete in a female-designated sports category.”
WIAA told the Seattle Times on Tuesday that proposed rule changes to exclude men from women’s sports would violate state law.
“The WIAA has been told by the Attorney General’s office, the Office for Civil Rights, and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction that proposed amendments ML/HS #7 and ML/HS #8 would be a violation under current Washington state law, affirming our attorney’s legal review,” communications director Sean Bessette told the outlet. “The WIAA remains committed to following state law, and those amendments focused on gender-identity participation would not be implemented on August 1 if they were to pass under current state law.”
READ:
Title IX Complaint to OCR – Washington by Katelynn Richardson
Hal Frampton, senior counsel at ADF, hopes that filing this complaint at the beginning of the track season will provide enough time for the issue to be “ironed out.”
“We are representing very competitive athletes who could be in line for potentially running for state championships,” he told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “We would like OCR to step in and for Washington to do the right thing and bring their policy into line right now and promote fair competition for female athletes.”
If OCR finds that Washington’s policy violates Title IX, “one potential remedy would be to go back and correct records” related to metals and championships, Frampton said.
The ED has already launched investigations into several universities and states like Oregon and Maine for allowing men to compete in women’s sports. It also opened an investigation into the Tumwater School District in Washington in response to a complaint from a 15-year-old female athlete.
U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins informed Maine Governor Janet Mills on Tuesday it would suspend some federal funding until the state comes into “compliance with Title IX’s protection of female student athletes from having to compete with or against or having to appear unclothed before males.”
The WIAA and Washington’s Office of the Superintendent did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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