Wasn’t Title IX supposed to protect women?
Over the last few years Title IX violations have been in the headlines. Much of the controversy began when Lia Thomas racked up win after win in 2022 in NCAA Division 1 women’s swimming for the University of Pennsylvania as a transgender woman. Since then, boys and men transitioning their gender have been competing in girls’ and women’s sports from middle school to the Olympics. Biological girls and women have been beaten in competition and sometimes physically injured by transgender women allowed to compete against them. Wasn’t Title IX supposed to protect women? What triggered this sudden influx of transgenders in women’s sports? Has anything changed? Is anyone trying to protect our girls?
Title IX – Sex vs Gender
Since 1972, when the Educational Amendments were put in place, everyone understood that it was implemented to prevent discrimination based on a person’s biological sex. Much of the 1970s society was focused on advancing equal rights for women, but that changed in 2021. On June 16, 2021 the Department of Education issued guidance that expanded the Title IX definition of “sex” to include sexual orientation and gender identity. And, on April 19, 2024 the Department of Education issued its Final Rule on Title IX obligating institutions to recognize trans and gender identifying students as identical to biological sexed students. Numerous lawsuits ensued from 2021 through 2024. Legislative efforts in Pennsylvania to prevent transgender athletes from competing in teams aligned with their gender identity were vetoed by Governor Wolf.
On January 9, 2025, a U.S. District Court in Kentucky vacated the 2024 Final Rule, prohibiting its enforcement in 26 states. Additionally, on January 20, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order for all federal departments to “enforce all sex-protective laws to promote [the] reality…of two sexes, male and female.” A summary from the Department of Education of both the Court and Executive Orders can be found here.
It’s All About the Funding
The Department of Education has almost $200 billion in budgetary resources to award to states and higher educational institutions. Without federal aid, some students would not be able to attend such prestigious institutions as the University of Pennsylvania. This was incentive enough for the university to settle with the federal government regarding federal civil rights litigation regarding the Lia Thomas swimming records. The settlement included sending formal letters of apology to female swimmers who were disadvantaged by the school’s transgender policies and adjusting school swimming records to reflect actual female accomplishments.
PA Legislative Efforts on Title IX
Save Women’s Sports Act – SB 9/HB 158
The purpose of Senate Bill 9, the Save Women’s Sports Act, is to “preserve the increased athletic opportunities that female students have gained over the past half century in this country.” This is accomplished by ensuring that teams are comprised of players of the same biological sex to allow fair competition. The bill passed in the PA Senate by a vote of 32-18 on May 6, 2025. The PA House’s sister bill, House Bill 158 sat in the Education Committee for two months and was sent to the Health Committee for review on July 9, 2025. Representative Barb Gleim, 199th Legislative District, is the prime sponsor of House Bill 158 and spoke about the issue on The Conservative Voice on Friday, August 1. The bill will likely be buried in committees to avoid a House vote and to avoid sending it to Governor Josh Shapiro for signing. The Governor has not indicated if he would sign the bill if it ever makes it to his desk.
Title IX Athletics Report Card
Representative Melissa Schusterman, House District 157, will be introducing a bill that will expand school district reporting requirements to the state to include an annual evaluation of compliance with Title IX requirements. The Pennsylvania Department of Education would then create report cards grading each school on an A-F scale on its compliance with Title IX. Although the intention of this legislation is to provide more transparency to parents, shouldn’t the process stop with the annual evaluation? At that point, it’s a pass/fail test. No grades are necessary. If the schools aren’t in compliance with federal law, then they should fix it or lose funding.
Perhaps Representatives Schusterman and Gleim could work together to protect all the girls in the Commonwealth with common sense legislation!
Bottom line…
Where are the Pennsylvania feminists who marched in the 1970’s for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) carrying signs like “Equal pay for equal work” and “Women will not be silenced!”? Many have been silent while our girls are struggling to assert their rights as outlined in Title IX. Although the Presidential Executive Order has righted some of the wrongs inflicted on our female student athletes, it is not a permanent solution. In order to prevent young females from being sidelined by transgender girls, we need legislative protections at the state and federal level. Contact your State Legislator or Congress Member and urge them to codify protections for our female athletes!
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