Undoubtedly, CNN will bring up abortion, former President Donald Trump’s New York court convictions, January 6 and other “threats to democracy” during the presidential debate this week. But what about the threat to women’s sports and equal rights under the Biden administration’s rewrite of Title IX?
This spring, the Biden administration unilaterally rewrote the rules governing Title IX, the landmark law passed over 50 years ago to ensure women have equal opportunity in education. Biden’s new rules equate sex with gender identity, which effectively outlaws single-sex spaces and opportunities. There can be no more teams and competitions reserved for women; no locker rooms that are female-only. Any man who claims a female identity must be accommodated; women’s safety, privacy and opportunity to compete and win are secondary considerations at best.
This is an issue that is of great concern to Americans across the country, so CNN should ask the candidates about it. In fact, athletes and women’s rights advocates from across the country, from a variety of political backgrounds, traveled to Washington, D.C., this week to call on Congress to take back Title IX for women.
This was the culmination of a month-long journey across the country, in which young girls dreaming of playing on teams and winning awards came to see Olympians and other renowned athletes from Riley Gaines to Martina Navratilova who are fighting to protect the integrity of women’s sports. This Take Back Title IX Bus Tour highlighted stories of women losing athletic opportunities to the growing number of men who are entering competitions meant for women. It is happening in professional golf, in collegiate swimming, high school gymnastics, track and field, weightlifting, boxing—essentially in every athletic competition. The future of women’s sports hangs in the balance.
Advocates of men’s right to enter women’s sports claim that they are on the side of inclusion and fairness. They gaslight the public about biological reality, trying to obscure what even children know is true: Male bodies are stronger and faster, on average, than women. That’s why we have separate leagues for the sexes in the first place. There is nothing fair about allowing men into women’s sports. It is why one does not see women, including women who identify as men, entering and dominating male competitions. It only works one way, with men entering competitions meant for women, and using their greater strength, speed and endurance to push women aside.
President Biden’s assault on the concept of sex differences is not just about women’s athletic opportunities. It is about safety and privacy. CNN should ask if President Biden thinks it’s fair to require female sexual assault survivors to undress in locker rooms where men are undressing next to them and freely watching them undress? Should these women be required to share dorm rooms with men? Should girls have integrated bunkhouses on overnight school trips?
The radical left’s new dogma—that biological differences between men and women are social constructs, have no relevance, and present no threat to women—is also devastating female prisoners. This is a topic that the administration and media outlets like CNN have shamefully ignored. Convicted rapists and sex offenders are being transferred into women’s prisons by purporting to identity as “women.” The chilling stories from female inmates and their advocates show how this constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. Is the Biden administration concerned about the safety of female prisoners as men opt into their cells?
The Biden administration’s Title IX rewrite goes much further than just eradicating opportunities and protections for female athletes. It will also strip parents of their rights and limit free speech in schools, including K-12 schools across the country.
Under the new Biden regulations, failing to use someone’s “preferred” pronouns can constitute “sex-based harassment” and open a school up for a federal civil rights investigation. The rule also puts schools on notice that even events that occur off-campus to students that could constitute harassment will put schools in legal jeopardy; schools will have reason to aggressively police student behavior well outside the classroom and hide information from parents about their own children, if those children are questioning their gender identity.
Most Americans believe that our policies have swung too far in favor of radical gender ideology and away from common sense. Does the Biden administration disagree? Are they concerned about women’s opportunities and safety as they eradicate single-sex institutions and open all doors to men? Americans deserve to know.
Carrie Lukas is the president of Independent Women’s Forum (iwf.org).
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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