Transgender people’s rights are considered protected under Title IX, according to a memo from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.
The memo, released March 26, was written in response to questions from federal agencies on how to apply the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, which held that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects LGBT employees against discrimination, as well as questions on applying Executive Order 13988, which is geared toward preventing and combating gender identity or sexual orientation-based discrimination.
The memo contradicts the positioning of Gov. Kristi Noem’s coalition to protect women’s sports by defending Title IX. The coalition’s website, defendtitleixnow.com, states that Title IX was passed to protect fairness for women and that the federal government should enforce Title IX “in a way that protects fairness for women’s sports, rather than misusing it in a way that undermines fairness.”
Defense of Title IX was also part of legislators’ reasoning for the necessity of House Bill 1217, which would have disallowed trans girls and women from playing on women’s sports teams. Noem vetoed 1217, instead requesting style and form revisions to the bill which were rejected by the House of Representatives. In 1217’s place, she issued two state executive orders intended to accomplish the same restrictions. Each are based on the assumption that Title IX is only meant to protect women from discrimination.
“Title IX creates an equal playing field between men and women’s sports. In order for women’s sports to be truly fair and equal, only girls should be able to play girls’ sports,” Noem spokesman Ian Fury told the Journal Monday.
“After considering the text of Title IX, Supreme Court caselaw, and developing jurisprudence in this area, the Division has determined that the best reading of Title IX’s prohibition on discrimination ‘on the basis of sex’ is that it includes discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation,” the memo, written by Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Pamela S. Karlan, said.
The memo clarifies that potential violations of Title IX will “necessarily turn on the specific facts” in any given case and that it does not prescribe outcomes of future enforcement of Title IX.
The federal executive order, which was signed by President Joe Biden on Jan. 20, reads, “Every person should be treated with respect and dignity and should be able to live without fear, no matter who they are or whom they love. Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports.”
