The Biden government has withdrawn government support for a federal lawsuit in Connecticut seeking to ban transgender athletes from participating in girls’ sports in high school.
Connecticut allows high school athletes to compete in sports based on their gender identity. The lawsuit was filed a year ago by several cisgender runners who claim they were denied wins, state titles, and athletics opportunities because they were forced to compete against two transgender sprinters.
The Department of Justice and the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights have withdrawn their support for the case ahead of a hearing scheduled for Friday on a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
The Trump administration’s intervention in the case last year came as the state legislature across the country debated limiting the participation of transgender athletes to their gender assigned at birth. Seventeen states envisaged 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 because transgender girls are born male, they are naturally stronger, faster, and taller than women born.
Last March, then Attorney General William Barr signed what is known as a declaration of interest in the Connecticut lawsuit, arguing that state policy violates Title IX, the federal law that provides girls with equal educational opportunities, including in athletics.
On a filing Tuesday, US Attorney John Durham of Connecticut and other department officials retracted Barr’s statement, saying, “The government has reconsidered the matter.”
Plaintiffs’ attorneys declined to comment.
The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference has said it follows a state law that requires all high school students to be treated based on their gender identity.
The Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights sent letters last spring and summer threatening to cut off some of the federal funding to Connecticut school districts that followed the policy.
On Tuesday, the agency informed those involved that it is withdrawing those letters “and the underlying findings and findings” and does not want to become a party to the lawsuit.
On his first day of work, President Joe Biden signed an executive order prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity in school sports and elsewhere. Former President Donald Trump had rolled back protections for transgender people during his tenure.
Dan Barrett, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut who represents the two transgender athletes in the lawsuit, said Tuesday’s action is “ an indication that the government, the Department of Education, could now take a different view. have on Title IX. “
CIAC Director Glenn Lungarini has said that the organization’s transgender policy was created with federal and state guidance and that multiple courts and federal agencies, including the Department of Justice, had previously acknowledged that the term “sex” in Title IX 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.
“Transgender girls are girls and every woman and girl deserves protection from discrimination. Period, ”he said in a statement.
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