The Trump Administration seems hell bent on picking a fight with California, and they seem to have chosen to pick a fight over trans kids in sports using Title IX.
According to PinkNews, The Trump Administration randomly decided that California’s trans-inclusive policy towards youth athletics violates Title IX, the federal law which outlaws sex-based discrimination in education. Using an anti-discrimination law to try to legalize discrimination is the exact kind of underhanded, bad-faith argument we’ve come to expect from Trump’s policies. California has been given a 10-day deadline to reverse its policies, adopt a binary definition of sex, and retroactively amend any records or awards. Nevermind that a binary definition of sex directly contradicts scientific fact. But Trump has little interest in what facts say.
California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office had some choice words for the federal government’s ludicrous demand. “The letter and proposed resolution agreement from the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) is not a serious legal document,” Elana Ross, deputy communications director of Newsom’s office, states about the order. “It’s a political document designed to intimidate school officials and unlawfully override well-established state laws protecting students.”
Before you start praising Newsom for standing up for trans students, you have to measure that against a statement he made on his podcast, This is Gavin Newsom, when interviewing conservative commentator and tater tot look-alike Charlie Kirk. When Kirk brought up trans women in sports, Newsom responds, “I completely agree with you on that … It’s easy to call out the unfairness of that. There’s also a humility and a grace. You know that these poor people are more likely to commit suicide, have anxiety and depression, and the way that people talk down to vulnerable communities is an issue that I have a hard time with as well. So both things I can hold in my hand. How can we address this issue with the kind of decency that I think you know is inherent in you?”
As a recent study pointed out, participation in sports is associated with improved mental health. And the perceived advantage that trans women have in women’s sports has been greatly overstated. But regardless of all that, trans women are women and women belong in women’s sports. Even if that meant that we have to greatly reorganize women’s sports, we still must start with the assumption that trans women are women and the end goal is to ensure that they can participate. Anything else is an assumption that trans women aren’t women, and that’s transphobia.
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