The political and judicial “left” – self-proclaimed or self-evident opponents of traditional rule of law, self-determination, family, faith, or free markets – has gone nuts, now firmly aligning themselves against biological girls. A federal district and circuit court just turned Title IX on its head. This must stop.
High school girls (defined as biological females) in Connecticut, who were objectively deprived of the right to compete only against other biological females and – as a result – lost 17 track records and 15 championship titles to biological boys (self-described as transgender), brought legal action.
A federal district court effectively ignored their claim to equality, based on Title IX’s longstanding promise of equal treatment for school-age girls (originally biological girls) – and dismissed their suit.
By dismissing their suit on procedural grounds, the court let stand blatant, indefensible, illegal discrimination against biological girls. Ducking the hard question – actually simple at law – the court claimed the suit was “moot” since the boys (who won the records claiming to be girls) had “graduated.”
The federal court also said the biological girls lacked “standing” to sue, presumably because the court accepted the definition of the boys as transgender girls, or because the biological girls could not claim to have won records they were contesting, or because the competitions described excluded them.
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals then ducked the obvious question again, not accepting the biological girls’ claim of discrimination under Title IX’s express promise not to discriminate against them on the basis of sex, somehow buying into the mootness and standing arguments, and adding that they were just following a Supreme Court case, Bostock v. Clayton, decided in 2020.
Stay with me, here. That case involved Title VII, which generally bars discrimination on the basis of “race, color, religion, or sex” including “gender identity.”
Missing in all this are painfully obvious observations. First, these decisions about Title IX are a “zero sum game.” If courts, legislatures, or schools permit the “transgender” boy to compete against all biological girls, the result might be a net plus for the “transgender” boys, but is a net minus for all biological girls.
Put differently, you cannot make Title IX real for “transgender” boys without immediately stripping Title IX of its entire meaning when it comes to preventing discrimination against biological girls.
The outrage – and need for course correction – comes from the fact that Title IX was designed to protect biological girls against having to compete against ANY boys, those who see themselves as “boys” or “girls.”
This is also why reliance on Title VII – a general non-discrimination law – is totally misplaced. The goal of Title VII is assure all are equally treated, which is not a “zero sum game.” Calling for all people to be treated fairly does not, in any definition, require affirmative discrimination against anyone.
But that is not under Title IX, not what Title IX is about, not what happens when you apply Title VII to a Title IX case. A court saying they will entitle a “transgender” boy to compete against biological girls, is an act of affirmative discrimination against all those biological girls. That will be true every time, which is why relying on the Bostock case was inappropriate.
But let’s get more obvious. If all courts reject cases for mootness and standing – by biological girls who say they were discriminated against by allowing biological boys to compete against them – the biological girls will never have a shot at a remedy.
Court cases always take time. Kids always graduate. Likely, “transgender” boys will always be gone by the time cases and appeals are decided. Girls will always lack standing if they lose or are deterred from competing. That is just a copout, a formula for institutionalizing discrimination against biological girls.
Perhaps the most obvious part of this utter injustice is that misguided, preoccupied, otherwise smart judges can twist themselves into pretzels – creating nonsense from logic, a complex justification, misreading, or misapplication of laws, definitions, or precedent which utterly confounds common sense, biology, precedent, purpose, original meaning, and all the other indicia of fairness.
What these judges have done, in the name of being big thinkers, progressive, open to leftist reinterpretations of basic laws – including the fundamental law of fairness – is to issue gobbledygook at and call it law, in the name of being “forward thinkers.”
Lots of things are up for debate in modern society, and lots of things should be debated. But whether a biological girl has a right – under Title IX, Equal Protection of the Constitution, or pursuant to what God gave her at birth – to fundamental fairness, a shot at achievement among her biological peers, should not be debatable.
What we have descended to is overt, unapologetic, gross, and morally indefensible discrimination against biological girls, for the stated purpose of anti-discrimination. Like so much of the left’s absurdity, this is Orwellian, like “freedom is slavery,” “ignorance is strength,” and “war is peace.” Add “discrimination is anti-discrimination.”
Bottom line: This madness must stop, as it has no basis in logic, law, morality, history, or any other pretense for defense. Anti-girl discrimination must stop. Political leaders need to say so, firmly, resolutely, loudly, legislatively, legally, and without delay. Every day that passes hurts girls, no excuse for that – none.