On Thursday, a group of 22 Republican House members sent a letter to Biden Administration Education Department Secretary Miguel Cardona arguing against the plan to change the definition of Title IX to include gender identity.
“This change in definition will negate the very foundation on which this protection is based,” Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) said in a statement to the Daily Caller, which first shared the report. “There will be no level playing field as 50 years of history and progress are erased. Since its introduction, there has been a significant increase in the number of women who participate in sports and go on to pursue them at a collegiate level. It’s a shame the president’s leftist agenda is willing to compromise this.”
The letter urged Cardona to prevent biological males from being eligible to compete in women’s sports due to their inherent biological advantages that persist after gender reassignment surgery.
“For the past five decades, Title IX has allowed countless women the opportunity to compete on a level playing field. Any changes to the definition of sex and gender under Title IX would dilute the protections that it offers and ultimately punish female athletes,” they wrote. “When women are forced to compete against biological males, the level playing field that Title IX created is obsolete.”
“In one year, 275 high school boys ran faster times than the lifetime best of World Champion sprinter Allyson Felix. Earlier this year, Lia Thomas, University of Pennsylvania swimmer and biological male, won the NCAA D1 500-meter National Championship,” the letter added. “Your proposed changes to the Title IX rule would make this the norm and would fundamentally erode the very protections it was designed to provide.”
The move comes shortly after House Republicans sent a similar letter in March to National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) President Mark Emmert that urged the NCAA to bar biological males from competing in women’s sports.
“In recent years, the NCAA has taken numerous steps to promote women’s sports. Yet, all these measures are worthless if you are unwilling to ensure a level playing field for biological women,” the group wrote at the time.
