Male students at private Westminster College in Salt Lake City can now play on female sports teams and use female locker and shower facilities as long as they identify as women.
School officials say they are forced to allow cross-dressing men to play on women’s sports teams — and use women’s showers — because of the way the Obama administration has decided to interpret Title IX.
“On May 13, 2016, the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education issued a Dear Colleague Letter on Transgender Students,” Westminster Title IX coordinator Jason Schwartz explained in an email obtained by Campus Reform.
“Westminster College is committed to protecting the rights of all students, and the purpose of this message to inform you of the newly-affirmed rights of transgender students under the DCL.” (“”DCL is an acronym used by Schwartz for “Dear Colleague Letter.”)
These “newly-affirmed rights” include “the right to access restrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identity” and “the right to participate in athletic activities consistent with their gender identity,” Schwartz wrote.
“In cases where selection for teams is competitive or when the activity involved is a contact sport, Westminster College will make tailored requirements based on sound, current, and research-based medical knowledge about the impact of an individual student’s participation on the competitive fairness or physical safety of the sport,” Schwartz added.
Transgender students can also live in the residence halls reserved for the gender with which they identify regardless of actual biological baggage, Schwartz explained.
Westminster College’s athletic teams — the Griffins — compete at the NCAA Division II level. Women’s teams include alpine skiing, basketball, tennis, lacrosse, soccer and volleyball.
Title IX is a comprehensive 1972 federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex. (RELATED: The Obama Administration Is Gripped By Radical Feminists Who Despise Due Process)
Westminster in Utah — not to be confused with other Westminster Colleges in Missouri or Pennsylvania — is a bit of a trailblazer. Only 10 of the 50 colleges and universities surveyed last year by USA Today had adopted policies for transgender athletes.
The 2,100-undergrad school was once affiliated with the Presbyterian Church but severed all ties in 1974.
A year of tuition, fees and room and board at fancypants Westminster costs $39,180.
Last month, the National Collegiate Athletic Association announced that all cities and college campuses seeking to host future NCAA championship events must fill out a lengthy, 7-page questionnaire about whether men who dress in women’s clothing can use women’s bathrooms and take showers in women’s locker rooms. (RELATED: New NCAA Rule: Championship Sites Must Allow Cross-Dressing Men To Use Women’s BATHROOMS, SHOWERS)
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