The boys who would be girls in Connecticut have been told by the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) to pick on someone their own size. In a 45-page letter obtained Thursday by the Associated Press, DOE's civil rights division says a Connecticut policy allowing transgender males to compete in girls sports is a violation of Title IX and it may seek to withhold federal funding over the policy. In reaction to the news, the ACLU and SBNation Outsports are spitting fire.
On behalf of three high school girls who repeatedly lose to two biological boys in track and field events in Connecticut, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) last year sued the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) over the policy.
AP's Pat Eaton-Robb reported Thursday the DOE letter states that CIAC policy is "a violation of Title IX, the federal civil rights law that guarantees equal education opportunities for women, including in athletics." Additionally, the DOE says of CIAC policy:
"It has 'denied female student-athletes athletic benefits and opportunities, including advancing to the finals in events, higher level competitions, awards, medals, recognition, and the possibility of greater visibility to colleges and other benefits.”
Eaton-Robb writes that the DOE Office for Civil Rights said its negotiations with CIAC since February failed to reach a solution, leading to a ruling dated May 15. The government agency plans to “either initiate administrative proceedings to suspend, terminate, or refuse to grant or continue and defer financial assistance” to the conference and relevant school districts or refer the cases to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Since the 2017 indoor and outdoor track and field seasons in Connecticut, transgender sprinters Terry Miller and Andraya Yearwood (seen above in photo) have routinely mopped up in their lopsided competitions with female rivals. They've combined to win 15 girls state championship races, leading to ADF filing the lawsuit on behalf of three girls ― Selina Soule, Chelsea Mitchell, and Alanna Smith.
The ACLU lawyers representing the boys say Miller and Yearwood are undergoing hormone treatments "that have put them on an equal footing with the girls they are competing against." The results clearly state otherwise. Eaton-Robb points out that plaintiff Chelsea Mitchell beat them in two races earlier this year, but he fails to report how fishy those results look; the boys who had dominated the girls sprints for three years suddenly lost a couple races ... only after ADF filed its lawsuit in February. Hmmm ...
In the AP story, ACLU lawyer and LGBT activist Chase Strangio whines: “All that today’s finding represents is yet another attack from the Trump administration on transgender students. (Secretary of Education Betsy) DeVos’s Department of Education is wrong on the law and we will continue to defend transgender students under Title IX and the Constitution. Trans students belong in our schools, including on sports teams, and we aren’t backing down from this fight.”
SBNation Outsports writer/LGBT activist Dawn Ennis responded with her usual claptrap about how Miller and Yearwood are really "girls," the plaintiffs are actually "cisgenders" and the Southern Poverty Law Center labeled the "transphobes" at ADF a "hate group."
Ennis says the Office of Civil Rights' action is a "political move" and a "bullying tactic" to scare Connecticut.
