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Last week, the US Department of Education released Its proposed new regulations apply Title IX to athletics. If passed, SU must act on a new set of standards for the role of gender identity in school sports.
While a set of regulations It is forbidden Institutions are able to ban transgender students from athletic participation solely on the basis of gender identity, and they also maintain provisions allowing for a number of the listed exceptions.
Schools under the regulations can maintain or impose restrictions on sex and gender as long as those restrictions are “significantly related to the achievement of an important educational objective.” The proposal lists sports-related injury and “competition fairness” as reasons that may be relevant to its definition of those goals. Otherwise, it does not establish explicit guidelines for schools making decisions about gender identity in athletics.
Some lawmakers and experts expressed disappointment with the proposal and cited the lack of a structure as a major problem. For Lindsey Darvin, a professor at the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics with an interest in researching gender equality in sports, the plan makes implementing Title IX even more confusing and problematic for schools working to enforce it.
Because it essentially only states that individual schools will make their own regulations for transgender athletes, she said, it creates excessive pressure on universities like SU to determine which policies and decision-making processes are best.
There will be no immediate change in what schools across the country, including California State University, are doing, said Rick Burton, the Falk College gifted professor of sports management. He said because Title IX is a federal collector, any regulations attached to it are mandatory because although it is a private university, SU receives some federal funding.
As a private institution not under the control of a religious organization, SU is subject to all Title IX regulations and provisions outside of those that apply to admissions practices.
SU has contested other Title IX updates in recent years. In August 2020, the university rolled out the statement Expressing his disagreement and reluctant compliance with the updates he expected would create barriers for survivors of sexual assault and harassment to come forward.
The USDE asserts that the proposed regulations have a net benefit for transgender students. In the April 6 press launchIn general, US Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said the regulations are designed to support Title IX protections for equal opportunity in athletics.
Cardona wrote, “Every student shall be able to obtain the full experience of going to school in America, including participation in athletics, without discrimination.”
In the press release, USDE stressed the face of the plan that would make any outright ban on transgender students on sports teams a violation of Title IX. in letter As for the Biden administration, a group of lawmakers is criticizing the space for restriction outside the provision.
“In discussing questions about equity in sports, rather than giving credence to false narratives about the supposed advantages of transgender athletes, we should instead ask why trans people are so underrepresented—in their participation, in their successes, and in athletic scholarship,” the letter said. you read.
Darvin also identified the exception to the “pedagogical goal” of fairness as an issue in discussions of gender identity in sports more generally. She said that the assumption that sports are fair is misguided in the first place.
“One of the big problems with all of this right now,” she said, “is that we’re romanticizing sports because this is a level playing field and sports are not inherently fair.” “Sport is perhaps the furthest thing from fairness, other than the fact that the rules on the court and on the field are the same.”
The proposal also includes provisions to distinguish between sports, levels of competition and grade or educational level in provisions relating to transgender athletes. For Darvin, the proposal’s reference to the fact that governing bodies like the NCAA set standards in national and international competition ignores the fact that in the United States, the lack of federal standardization means there are inconsistencies in how Title IX operates across the country.
“That to me is incredibly, incredibly problematic,” she said. “(If you) think about each individual sport when making these regulations, you can basically control different sports differently in terms of sanctioning policy, regulations, and compliance.”
Now, after the proposed regulations are released, the proposal is set to enter a public comment period during which lawmakers, education officials, and the public can offer criticisms of the USDE plan.
The public comment period will begin when the proposal is added to the Federal Register, and will end after 30 days.
Posted on Apr 13, 2023 at 2:01 am
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