President Joe Biden's Department of Education has given up on a proposed rule change that would have punished schools for preventing trans athletes from competing in women's sports.
The Department of Education released a docket on Friday announcing its withdrawal of the proposition. The Biden administration had proposed the rule change in April 2023. The proposition was titled "Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Sex in Education Programs or Activities Receiving Federal Financial Assistance: Sex-Related Eligibility Criteria for Male and Female Athletic Teams"
The rule would have officially outlawed individual states from banning participation in single-sex sports by gender identity rather than just sex. There are 23 states in the U.S. that have legislation in place to restrict trans athletes from competing as females in public school sports.
The docket claims that the original intent of Biden's proposal was to "propose a regulatory standard under Title IX that would govern a recipient’s adoption or application of sex-related criteria that would limit or deny a student’s eligibility to participate on a male or female athletic team consistent with their gender identity."
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The department claims that its decision to withdraw comes after hearing testimony during the comment period, but that ongoing lawsuits have also played into the decision.
"The Department recognizes that there are multiple pending lawsuits related to the application of Title IX in the context of gender identity, including lawsuits related to Title IX’s application to athletic eligibility criteria in a variety of factual contexts. In light of the comments received and those various pending court cases, the Department has determined not to regulate on this issue at this time," the docket read.
Multiple states have filed lawsuits and enacted their own laws to address the issue after the Biden-Harris administration issued a sweeping rule that clarified that Title IX’s ban on "sex" discrimination in schools covers discrimination based on gender identity, sexual orientation and "pregnancy or related conditions."
The administration insisted the regulation does not address athletic eligibility. However, multiple experts presented evidence to Fox News Digital in June that it would ultimately put more biological men in women's sports.
In August, The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to deny the administration an emergency request to enforce that sweeping rule. The request would have permitted biological men in women’s bathrooms, locker rooms and dorms in 10 states where there are state-level and local-level rules in place to prevent it. Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch was the only conservative justice to dissent in that decision.
Democrats have proposed other federal legislation that would allow for more transgender inclusion in women's sports. This record of support became a subject of nationwide backlash during the election cycle, that Republicans and President-elect Donald Trump seized on as a key campaign issue.
Past Democratic support for trans inclusion includes the Equality Act, which was proposed in 2019 and has seen revisions that "would force public schools to allow biologically male athletes who identify as transgender on girls’ sports teams."
In March 2023, Democrats advocated for a transgender bill of rights, proposing a resolution "recognizing that it is the duty of the Federal Government to develop and implement a Transgender Bill of Rights." The resolution specifically called for federal law to ensure that biological men can "participate in sports on teams and in programs that best align with their gender identity; [and] use school facilities that best align with their gender identity."
On the other side of the aisle, Idaho's Republican Gov. Brad Little issued an executive order in August to enforce the "Defending Women's Sports Act," which would require schools and colleges to prohibit transgender athletes in women's sports.
In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital before the election, Little acknowledged concern that his executive order could have resulted in public schools in his state losing federal funding if Kamla Harris had become the 47th president.
"We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it," Little said. "From a national standpoint, there are radical little groups that want to implement changes in the rules that we have already. I’m confident in what we have, and we will aggressively (act), as the state of Idaho, both legally and legislatively, to protect women’s athletes and the great advances they’ve made because of Title IX."
But even states with those laws in effect to prevent it from happening have had to endure trans athletes sharing fields and locker rooms with girls inside their own borders due to the interference of liberal federal judges.
Multiple Obama-era federal judges have passed rulings that allow transgender inclusion in girls' sports. Judges Landya McCafferty in New Hampshire and M. Hannah Lauck of Virginia each passed rulings this year that enabled biological males to play on high school girls' soccer and tennis teams. Both judges were appointed by Obama in the early 2010s.
However, Democrats slowly backpedaled in their support for trans inclusion as the year went on. Multiple Democrats, including Texas Rep. Collin Allred, backtracked on past support for transgender inclusion in women's sports.
That trend continued after the election when Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton spoke out against his party's stance and actions in enabling transgender inclusion in multiple interviews, inciting fierce backlash and even a massive pro-transgender rally outside his office.
Now, in the Biden administration's final weeks, it too has issued a major surrender on the issue as the party continues to debate what its stance will be, moving forward.
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