San Jose State under investigation for Title IX discrimination
San Jose State has never confirmed whether its women’s volleyball team has a trans player. (Getty)
The U.S Department of Education is investigating San José State University for possible violations of Title IX due to the participation of an alleged transgender athlete in its women’s volleyball team.
Title IX is the 1972 federal law that bans sex discrimination in education.
The investigation follows an executive order President Donald Trump which bans transgender women and girls from participating in women’s sports.
The education department’s acting assistant secretary for civil rights, Craig Trainor, told NBC News: “The previous administration trampled the rights of American women and girls — and ignored the indignities to which they were subjected in bathrooms and locker rooms — to promote a radical transgender ideology.”
San Jose State is being investigated for an unnamed player on the women’s volleyball team, who is purportedly trans.
Players in the team previously filed a lawsuit against the Mountain West Conference – under which the team plays – arguing that the alleged trans player’s participation posed a safety risk.
Several other universities competing in the Mountain West Conference forfeited their games against San Jose State in protest against the trans player competing.
The Department of Education is also investigating the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association for similar violations of Title IX.
The investigation at Pennsylvania focuses on Lia Thomas, a swimmer who became the first openly transgender athlete to win a Division I title in 2022, while the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association apparently allowed a transgender athlete to compete on a girls’ high school basketball team, prompting an opposing team to forfeit and alleging that three of their players were injured.
The Trump Administration has been increasingly using Title IX to push back against schools and universities that provide accommodations for transgender students.
All federal agencies have also been directed to “rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities”.
The Department of Education recently told its employees that it will end all programmes and remove policies that “fail to affirm the reality of biological sex” to comply with the ongoing crackdown on trans rights.
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