The Biden administration withdrew government support for a federal lawsuit in Connecticut aimed at banning transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports in high school.
Connecticut allows high school athletes to compete in sports according to their gender identity. The lawsuit was filed a year ago by several cisgender racers who argue that they have been deprived of victories, state titles and athletic opportunities for being forced to compete against two transsexual sprinters.
The Department of Justice and the Department of Education’s Civil Rights Office withdrew their support for the case before a hearing scheduled for Friday on a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
The Trump administration’s intervention in the case last year came as state legislatures across the country debated restricting the participation of transgender athletes to their assigned gender at birth. Seventeen states considered such legislation, and Idaho passed a law. The Republican-controlled Mississippi legislature overwhelmingly passed a similar bill earlier this month.
Proponents of restrictions on transgender athletes argue that transgender girls, being born male, are naturally stronger, faster and larger than women born.
Last March, then Attorney General William Barr signed what is known as a declaration of interest in the Connecticut case, arguing that state policy conflicts with Title IX, the federal law that allows girls equal opportunities to education, including athletics.
In a filing on Tuesday, United States Attorney General Connecticut, John Durham, and other department officials withdrew Barr’s statement, saying, “The government has reconsidered the matter.”
The plaintiffs’ lawyers declined to comment.
The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference said it is following a state law that requires all high school students to be treated according to their gender identity.
The Department of Education’s Civil Rights Office in the spring and last summer sent letters threatening to cut some federal funds to Connecticut school districts that followed the policy.
On Tuesday, the office notified those involved that it was withdrawing those letters “as well as the underlying conclusions and determinations” and does not wish to become a party to the process.
On his first day in office, President Joe Biden signed an executive order prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity in school sports and elsewhere. Former President Donald Trump revoked transgender protections during his term.
Dan Barrett, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut, who represents the two transgender athletes in the lawsuit, said Tuesday’s action represents “an indication that the government, the Department of Education, may now have a different view of the Title IX. “
CIAC Executive Director Glenn Lungarini said the organization’s transgender policy was formed with federal and state guidance and that several federal courts and agencies, including the Department of Justice, had already recognized that the term “sex” in Title IX it is ambiguous.
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said on Tuesday that he was satisfied with the Justice Department’s decision to withdraw Barr’s statement.
“Trans girls are girls and every woman and girl deserves protection from discrimination. Period, ”he said in a statement.
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