Attorney General William Barr has signed a statement of interest arguing against a policy allowing transgender athletes to compete in Connecticut high school sports as the gender with which they identify, ESPN reported Wednesday.
Barr’s move to involve the Justice Department in a federal civil rights lawsuit comes after the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) argued that athletes can be allowed to compete as the gender they identify with in accordance with state law, which would allow transgender athletes who identify as girls to compete as such. The CIAC, which is the board that oversees the state’s high school athletic competitions, argues the policy follows Title IX, the federal law allowing equal educational opportunities in education to all students, according to ESPN.
“Under CIAC’s interpretation of Title IX, however, schools may not account for the real physiological differences between men and women. Instead, schools must have certain biological males — namely, those who publicly identify as female — compete against biological females,” Barr and the other department officials write, according to ESPN.. “In so doing, CIAC deprives those women of the single-sex athletic competitions that are one of the marquee accomplishments of Title IX.”
Teenage track stars Alanna Smith, Selina Soule, and Chelsea Mitchell filed a lawsuit against the CIAC and several other local boards of education in February and named two transgender athletes in particular who they say have taken away titles from biological females, Daily Caller reported in February. (RELATED: Teenage Girls Are Fighting For Their Sport In Transgender Lawsuit)
“Males will always have inherent physical advantages over comparably talented and trained girls — that’s the reason we have girls sports in the first place,” their attorney, Christiana Holcomb from Alliance Defending Freedom, said Wednesday according to ESPN. “And a male’s belief about his gender doesn’t eliminate those advantages.”
Selina Soule appeared with Holcomb on Tucker Carlson Tonight in June 2019, where she explained that she has faced “retailitation” from coaches but support from teammates for her decision to speak out about having finished behinded two transgender women in a track championship.
“Girls like Selina should never be forced to be spectators in their own sports,” Holcomb said. “Title IX was designed to ensure that girls had a fair shake at athletics.” (RELATED: High School Girls Sue After Being Forced To Compete Against Transgender Athletes)