Trump administration officially declares it believes trans girls should be treated as ‘biological males’
Attorney General William Barr filed a statement of interest in the case on behalf of the Trump administration, arguing that trans girls should not be treated as girls. (SAUL LOEB and ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS / AFP)
The Trump administration has officially declared that it believes trans girls should be treated as “biological males” when playing sports at school.
The US Justice Department is supporting a lawsuit which aims to block trans girls at schools in Connecticut from competing as girls in interscholastic sports competitions.
Three high-school students in Connecticut filed a federal discrimination complaint in June 2019, challenging the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) policy of letting trans students compete on sports teams according to their gender identity.
The complaint, which argues that trans athletes should not be allowed to compete in the category corresponding to their gender identity because it’s unfair to cisgender girls, was filed on behalf of the three students by the religious and anti-trans Alliance Defending Freedom, which has also filed more than 40 cases against Planned Parenthood.
However the CIAC argues that its policy is in line with Title IX, which ensures equal educational opportunities for girls, including preventing discrimination based on gender in school sports.
The organisation previously said: “The CIAC is committed to providing transgender student-athletes with equal opportunities to participate in CIAC athletic programs consistent with their gender identity…
“The CIAC has concluded that it would be fundamentally unjust and contrary to applicable state and federal law to preclude a student from participation on a gender specific sports team that is consistent with the public gender identity of that student for all other purposes.”
On Tuesday, March 24, the Trump administration officially got involved in the case. Attorney general William Barr filed a statement of interest, arguing against the CIAC policy.
According to ABC, in its filing the US Justice Department wrote: “Under CIAC’s interpretation of Title IX, however, schools may not account for the real physiological differences between men and women.
“Instead, schools must have certain biological males – namely, those who publicly identify as female – compete against biological females.
“In so doing, CIAC deprives those women of the single-sex athletic competitions that are one of the marquee accomplishments of Title IX.”
Christiana Holcomb, the attorney representing the three girls who filed the complaint, said: “Males will always have inherent physical advantages over comparably talented and trained girls — that’s the reason we have girls sports in the first place.
“And a male’s belief about his gender doesn’t eliminate those advantages.”
ACLU has previously spoken out against the lawsuit, calling it “a dangerous distortion of both law and science in the service of excluding trans youth from public life”.
