Department of Justice Withdraws from Anti-Trans Lawsuit

The Department of Justice has withdrawn a statement of support for a Connecticut lawsuit attempting to ban transgender girls from competing in high school girls’ sports.

The lawsuit, filed in February 2020 by three cisgender, high school runners and their families, argues that allowing transgender girls to participate in high school girls’ sports unfairly deprives cisgender athletes from winning titles and accessing athletic opportunities.

In March 2020, the Trump administration and former Attorney General Bill Barr filed a statement of interest in the lawsuit.

“Allowing biological males to compete in all-female sports deprives women of the opportunity to participate fully and fairly in sports and is fundamentally unfair to female athletes,” Barr says in the statement.

The cisgender girls are being represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian nonprofit that has been designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-LGBTQ hate group.

The plaintiffs claim that Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in educational activities, should inherently prohibit transgender girls from competing with cisgender girls in high school sports. The defendants, the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) and two trans, high school athletes, argue that Title IX protects their rights, and that “sex-based discrimination” applies to transgender individuals as well, not just cisgender girls.

“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 doing so, CIAC deprives those women of single-sex athletic competitions and the opportunity to compete on equal, athletic footing,” the Department of Justice’s statement of support claimed.

Now, the Department of Justice and the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has withdrawn this support under the Biden administration. Connecticut Attorney General William Tong backed the decision in a statement.

“Transgender girls are girls, and every woman and girl deserves protection against discrimination. Period,” Tong told the Associated Press.

The dispute over the meaning of Title IX is one that is consistently present in state courts across the country. Seventeen states have introduced bills to prohibit transgender children from competing in high school sports this year.

The Biden administration’s support for trans youth, however, gives the LGBTQ community hope for the future. On his first day in office, Biden issued an executive order prohibiting discrimination against transgender students.

Young, trans athletes have received support from other sources as well. The ACLU has spoken out in defense of the two trans athletes named in the Connecticut case and will be representing them in court. Last year, 176 professional athletes, including Megan Rapinoe and Billie Jean King, signed a legal brief supporting trans girls in sports in response to an anti-trans bill in Idaho.