Both California and Minnesota have vowed to flout the Trump administration’s ban on biological males in girls’ sports, but it turns out the president’s executive order wasn’t a suggestion.
The Department of Education opened Title IX investigations into the California Interscholastic Federation and the Minnesota State High School League after they said they will continue to allow transgender students to compete based on gender identity versus sex at birth.
The organizations said they would continue to follow their states’ anti-discrimination laws, but a Trump administration official countered that the federal order supersedes state law.
“The Minnesota State High School League and the California Interscholastic Federation are free to engage in all the meaningless virtue-signaling that they want, but at the end of the day they must abide by federal law,” said Craig Trainor, DOE acting assistant secretary for civil rights, in a statement Wednesday.
Meanwhile, two male-born students who identify as female asked a federal court Wednesday to expand their lawsuit against New Hampshire’s girls’ sports law to include the Trump administration order entitled Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports.
The president’s executive order signed Feb. 5 warned that colleges and K-12 schools risk having their federal funding rescinded if they “deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities” under Title IX, which bars sex discrimination in education.
Trainor said that the Office for Civil Rights field offices in Chicago and San Francisco will conduct the investigations “to ensure that female athletes in these states are treated with the dignity, respect, and equality that the Trump Administration demands.”
“I would remind these organizations that history does not look kindly on entities and states that actively opposed the enforcement of federal civil rights laws that protect women and girls from discrimination and harassment,” Trainor said.
A CIF spokesperson said the organization has been notified of the department’s action, but that “we do not comment on pending investigations.”
The MHSLS said it would consider asking the state attorney general’s office for a formal opinion on the order’s conflict with state anti-discrimination law.
“Therefore, students in Minnesota are allowed to participate consistent with their gender identity,” the MSHSL said in a statement to Fox9 in Minneapolis-St. Paul.
The two New Hampshire teenagers, Parker Tirrell and Iris Tumelle, sued last year after the state passed a Fairness in Women’s Sports Act requiring students to compete based on sex at birth. A federal judge temporarily blocked the law in August.
“We’re expanding our lawsuit to challenge President Trump’s executive orders because, like the state law, it excludes, singles out, and discriminates against transgender students,” said Henry Klementowicz, deputy legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire, which represents the students.
The unopposed motion to amend the complaint represents the first legal challenge to the week-old executive order, but it probably won’t be the last.
Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia allow biological males to compete in girls’ and women’s sports, while 27 states have laws or regulations requiring students to participate based on sex at birth.
Some transgender athletes have drawn headlines for their exploits in girls’ sports, including Henry Hanlon, a girls’ basketball player at San Francisco Waldorf who put up 29 points in a game last month, nearly outscoring the entire opposing team.
The Department of Education launched investigations last week into Penn, San Jose State, and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association for alleged violations of Title IX stemming from male-born players in female sports.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.