Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said Title IX, the civil rights rule meant to protect women from discrimination, will continue to be governed by “biological reality” as she spoke on the steps of the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
McMahon spoke about the harm caused by policies that ignore biological differences between men and women as the Court heard oral arguments in a set of cases challenging state bans on men playing in women’s sports. While awaiting the Court’s ruling, the Department of Education (ED) “remain[s] steadfast in enforcing Title IX as it was intended, rooted in biological reality to ensure fairness, safety, and equal access to education programs for women and girls across our nation,” McMahon promised.
“How tragic that women are still fighting for their right to have equal access and equal opportunity in athletics programs,” McMahon said. “I remember our fight as women to secure equal educational opportunities under Title IX over 50 years ago. In 2020, President Trump’s Department of Education continued that fight and made it clear that Title IX, which protects against discrimination on the basis of sex in education, is rooted in biological reality.”
The secretary mentioned the Biden administration’s “decision to indulge in a false worldview that undermines women’s rights and puts girls in danger” by attempting to rewrite Title IX to include gender identity, effectively allowing men to enter women’s bathrooms, locker rooms and sports. The rule change was eventually dropped by the administration after a lengthy legal battle and later halted permanently by a federal court.
“In just four years, the Biden administration reversed decades of progress, twisting the law to argue that ‘sex’ is not defined by objective biological reality, but by the subjective notion of ‘gender identity,’” McMahon recalled. “We have seen the consequences of the Biden administration’s advocacy of a radical transgender agenda. Institutions stripped women and girls of their access to fair competition and dignified private facilities. They forced women into unfair and humiliating situations that have led to sexual assault, harassment, and in some cases, permanent injury. To say the least, the last four years have been hell for these girls.”
She reiterated that the Trump administration is “committed to restoring an understanding of sex based in scientific reality,” pointing to the creation of the Title IX Special Investigations Team to thoroughly address complaints relating to sex-based discrimination and the memo promising to enforce the biology-based definition of sex.
McMahon made mention of the many women who have been harmed by policies allowing men to compete against women, such as volleyball player Payton McNabb, who “suffered brain damage from being hit with a ball by a male athlete masquerading as a female” and the University of Pennsylvania swimmers who were infamously forced to change in front of the man on their team, Lia Thomas.
“Adults in positions of authority have forced girls to undress with men in their most intimate spaces. They have forced women to risk injury just to participate in athletic competitions that some have spent their whole lives preparing for, and then smeared these women as ‘bigoted’ and ‘transphobic’ for standing up for their own safety and dignity,” McMahon detailed. “It must end. These courageous students demonstrate why restoring fairness in women’s sports is a moral imperative.”
“The cases being argued today are not abstract legal debates. They reflect a real, troubling pattern of harm inflicted by radical forces working to reshape our culture.”
“Americans have had enough of women and girls losing opportunities and being subjected to the indignity and danger of unfair competition due to the left’s warped application of federal law,” the secretary concluded. “That is why Americans overwhelmingly elected President Trump to end this madness and restore common sense by returning sanity to the sexes.”
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