Lia Thomas, a former Penn swimmer who now lives as a woman but is actually a guy, said she supports the Biden administration’s planned change to Title IX. If the change goes through, schools in grades K–8 will no longer be able to protect women’s sports from transgender athletes.
According to Breitbart News, the Education Department of the Biden administration has been working to stop schools that get government money from “categorically” banning biological guys from playing girls’ sports.
In its proposed rule, the Department of Education said it would “establish that policies violate Title IX when they categorically ban transgender students from participating on sports teams that are consistent with their gender identity just because of who they are.” But the proposed rule also says that it will recognize that “in some cases, especially in high school and college sports that are very competitive, some schools may adopt policies that limit the participation of transgender students.”
The rules will also give schools a way to protect transgender students from not getting the same sports opportunities as other students. This will give schools the freedom to make their own involvement policies.
USA Today says that the rule’s effects on K–12 schools could be different, and that schools will still be able to “decide what is right for them under the proposed regulation, including taking grade and education level into account,” as a top department official told reporters on a call Thursday.
In a video she shared to social media on Monday, Lia Thomas said she agreed with the changes but that the Biden administration needs to go further and make the same changes in high school and college sports.
Thomas said in a video, “I’m a transgender woman who used to swim in college. I’m also the first trans athlete to win a Division I NCAA title.” “I learned to swim when I was 5, and it’s given me a lot. It has given me so many chances to learn, grow, improve, and connect with my peers that I wouldn’t have had if I couldn’t do sports. So, it breaks my heart to see transgender kids all over the country miss out on these chances.
“The Department of Education has suggested a new rule for Title IX about transgender athletes. This rule would ban blanket bans on transgender kids, especially in schools K through 8. But it wouldn’t stop transgender kids from being treated unfairly in high school and college under the cover of “fair competition,” Thomas said.
Another transgender athlete, Yale swimmer Iszac Henig, told the Associated Press that the changes should go even further, but that the Biden administration should be praised for taking the first step.
Henig said, “I would love to see protections extended to include professional and college sports, but this seems like a good start.” “Trans athletes should be able to play on the team of their choice if their athletic skills allow it.”
Riley Gaines, a swimmer from Kentucky, tied with Lia Thomas in the women’s 200-meter freestyle event at the NCAA finals. In reaction, Thomas called Gaines “selfish.”
“Under the cover of a fair competition? Are you really trying to say that if you had played against men, you would have won a national title? Does it not break your heart to see these chances go to men instead of women? The bill that the Biden Administration wants to pass goes against science, the truth, and common sense,” Gaines wrote on Twitter.
“This point of view is selfish and shows that you don’t care about women at all. “The Biden Administration is working hard and fast to pass laws that will stop women in sports from getting fair and decent treatment,” she said.