POLITICS
Gabbard Proposes Anti-Trans Sports Bill in Congress
Hawaii congressmember joins with GOP colleague to exclude trans women from Title IX
BY MATT TRACY
Lame duck Congressmember
Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii
is giving a big middle
fi nger to transgender and
non-binary athletes on her way
out of Washington with a new bill
seeking to exclude trans women
and some non-binary individuals
from protections under Title IX.
The proposal by Gabbard and
Republican co-sponsor Markwayne
Mullin of Oklahoma adds
to a dangerous trend fueled by the
religious right and the Trump administration
aimed at sidelining
transgender women — and anyone
assigned male at birth but whose
gender identity does not align
with that — in girls’ and women’s
sports. While anti-LGBTQ legal
groups like the Alliance Defending
Freedom have turned to multiple
states to launch legal battles on the
Hawaii Congressmember Tulsi Gabbard is turning back on efforts she has made in recent years to clean
up her poor record on queer issues.
issue, the Trump administration’s
Department of Education has also
sought to use Title IX to kick trans
and non-binary athletes off the
playing fi eld.
The administration has gone
so far as to launch intersectional
REUTERS/ BRENDAN MCDERMID
attacks by threatening to block
funding for racial desegregation
programs in retaliation against
schools allowing trans athletes
to participate in accordance with
their gender identity.
Now Gabbard, the one-time
Democratic presidential wannabe,
is gleefully hopping aboard the
Trump train. Her new legislation
notes that when considering compliance
with Title IX, “sex shall be
determined on the basis of biological
sex as determined at birth by a
physician.”
“Title IX is being weakened by
some states who are misinterpreting
Title IX, creating uncertainty,
undue hardship and lost opportunities
for female athletes,” Gabbard
said in a written statement,
echoing the kinds of transphobic
arguments made by the far right.
“Our legislation protects Title IX’s
original intent, which was based
on the general biological distinction
between men and women athletes
based on sex. It is critical that
the legacy of Title IX continues to
ensure women and girls in sports
➤ GABBARD, continued on p.11
EDUCATION
SCOTUS Won’t Review Trans-Inclusive School Policies
Students, parents complaining of facilities access based on gender identity lose again
BY PAUL SCHINDLER
For the second time in less
than two years, the US
Supreme Court has declined
to review a lower
court ruling rejecting a challenge
mounted by cisgender students
and their parents opposed to their
local school district’s policy of allowing
transgender students to use
bathroom and locker facilities consistent
with their gender identity.
In a lawsuit brought in 2018,
opponents of the policy sued the
Dallas School District in western
Oregon arguing that protecting
the rights of transgender students
violated the rights of those students
who were not transgender
— by infringing on the privacy
rights of cisgender youths, creating
sex harassment barred by
Title IX of the 1972 federal education
amendments, and denying
Attorney Chase Strangio is deputy director for trans justice with the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project, which
was given intervenor status to defend the Dallas, Oregon, school district’s trans-inclusive policies.
parents their First Amendment
free exercise of religion rights to
protect their children from viewpoints
ACLU.ORG
they consider immoral on
religious grounds.
On February 12 of this year,
the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
upheld a 2019 ruling by District
Judge Marco A. Hernandez rejecting
the claims against the school
district.
In May 2019, the high court similarly
refused to grant review of a
ruling by the Third Circuit Court
of Appeals that rejected a challenge
to the trans-inclusive policies
of the Boyertown, Pennsylvania,
school district.
Four members of the Supreme
Court must agree to review of a
lower court decision in order for
it to be granted, and it is noteworthy
that the addition of a new
conservative justice, Amy Coney
Barrett, to replace the late liberal
icon, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, did
not change the court’s disinclination
to disturb rulings made by a
number of lower federal benches,
➤ SCOTUS, continued on p.11
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