By Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,
The U.S. Department of Education has launched an investigation into the Maine Department of Education for approving men’s participation in women’s sporting events.
The investigation is being launched by the federal department’s Office for Civil Rights “which alleges that it continues to allow male athletes to compete in interscholastic girls’ athletics and that it has prohibited female athletes from using intimate facilities designated for women only,” the department said in a Feb. 21 statement. These actions violate “federal anti-discrimination law.”
The Office for Civil Rights is also investigating Maine School District 51 after reports that Greely High School, a school under its jurisdiction, “continues to allow at least one male student to compete in girls’ categories.”
The investigation began after President Donald Trump said at the Republican Governors Association dinner on Feb. 20 that Maine was at risk of losing federal funding if the state continued to allow men to participate in women’s sporting events.
“I heard the men are still playing in Maine,” Trump said.
“I hate to tell you this, but we’re not giving federal money. They keep saying we want men to play in women’s sports, and I can’t believe they’re doing that. So we’re not giving them federal funding – nothing until they clean it up.”
Maine Governor Janet Mills responded to Trump’s statement on February 21, saying the state was “not intimidated by the president’s threats.”
If Trump withdraws funding, his administration and the attorney general will take all appropriate and necessary legal action to restore that funding, Mills said.
The U.S. Department of Education explained that no state law can override federal anti-discrimination laws, and that the Maine Department of Education and its schools are subject to Title IX. Title IX prohibits gender discrimination in education. This laid the foundation for women’s athletic programs.
“Maine wants you to believe that it has no choice in how it treats women and girls in athletics – which means it must follow its state laws and allow male athletes to compete against women and girls,” said Craig Trainor, acting secretary for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Education.
Let me be clear: If Maine wants to continue to receive federal funds from the Department of Education, it must comply with Title IX. If it wants to forgo federal funds and continue to trample on the rights of its young female athletes, that is its choice too. [The Office for Civil Rights] will do everything it can to ensure that taxpayers are not funding egregious civil rights violators.
Earlier this month, the department announced an investigation into the California Interscholastic Federation and the Minnesota State High School League after they publicly announced plans that could allow male athletes to compete in women’s sports and also use women’s intimate facilities.
Defending women’s sports
On February 5, Trump signed an executive order “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports,” which aims to protect women’s sporting events.
Many educational institutions and athletics federations have in recent years allowed men to participate in women’s sports, which the regulation called “degrading, unfair, and dangerous to women and girls,” adding that such practices do not allow “women and girls an equal opportunity to participate and excel in competitive sports.”
The order made it US policy to “withdraw all funding from educational programs that deny women and girls equal opportunities to participate in sports” and to “oppose male competition in women’s sports.”
On February 6, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Board of Governors voted to update the association’s “transgender student and athlete participation policy,” in accordance with Trump’s order.
The new NCAA rules limit “competition in women’s sports to student-athletes who are assigned female at birth.” The NCAA is made up of 1,100 universities and colleges in 50 states, with more than 530,000 student-athletes participating.
Candice Jackson, deputy general counsel for the U.S. Department of Education, said the NCAA “has rightly changed its stance on discriminatory practices against female athletes.”
