Gov Lombardo Advocates To Restore Protection In Female Sports

Announced in a press release from the Republican Governors Association, Governor Lombardo has joined a coalition of 25 governors who are advocating to restore protection in girls’ sports in the wake of the Biden Administration’s new Title IX rules, proposed by the Department of Education, to expand the meaning of sexual discrimination to include gender identity that would prevent schools and colleges from banning transgender athletes.

The proposed rule would mean that schools and colleges receiving federal funding could not impose an independent policy ensuring students play on teams consistent with their biological sex.

In a joint letter submitted Friday to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, the governors, led by Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, urged the Biden Administration to withdraw the rule, noting that the rule lacks Congressional authority. The letter further blasts the administration for eviscerating women’s sports and erasing the historic advancements and achievements of women by validating a male athlete to steal the recognition from a female athlete.

Excerpts from the letter to the Biden Administration include:

We write to submit a joint comment in opposition to the U.S. Department of Education’s proposed new regulation 34 C.F.R. § 106.41(b)(2) and respectfully request that it be withdrawn or delayed until the U.S. Supreme Court can address the questions raised in several pending cases that are challenging this administration’s expanded reading of Title IX.

If [the rule is] not withdrawn, we are gravely concerned about the impact that the Department’s wholesale reinvention of Title IX’s terms would have on states’ ability to enforce their laws and policies as written… Most troubling, the proposed regulation would turn the purpose of Title IX on its head and threaten the many achievements of women in athletics.

The proposed rule also lacks any Congressional authority. The plain language used in Title IX does not allow the sweeping rewrites of Title IX that the Department persists in seeking”It is undisputed that Title IX prohibits discrimination ‘on the basis of sex.

Undeterred by plain English, the Department invents new categories solely based on a student’s ‘gender identity’ — a term not used in Title IX. This overreaching interpretation exceeds the Department’s Congressionally granted authority. Not only does the Department lack the authority to unilaterally re-write Title IX, such a regulation would disrupt states and schools and eviscerate the lived experience and achievements of generations of courageous women.

This administration apparently sees no irony that its policies validate an average male athlete stealing the recognition from a truly remarkable female athlete whose lifelong athletic discipline and achievements are discarded based on a deliberate misreading of a law whose very purpose was to protect, preserve, and encourage women’s athletics. The scandal of 1970’s and 1980’s East German women athletes pales in comparison to the logical result of this administration’s relentless pursuit of draconian enforcement of its gender ideology. Leaving aside the Department’s utter lack of authority to promulgate such a regulation, neither states nor schools should be subjected to such a fluid and uncertain standard. Nor, most importantly, should the historic advancements and achievements of our sisters, mothers, and daughters be erased.

This letter was timely for Nevadans as the ACLU NV has threatened to sue the Douglas County School District if the Board of Trustees consider a rule to protect female and male sports, spaces, and locker rooms.

Yesterday, The Globe reported:

The Globe obtained a letter sent to the Douglas County School District Board of Trustees from the ACLU Nevada that threatens the district with a lawsuit if the Board adopts a transgender student policy that protect sports, locker rooms, and bathrooms from biological males who identify as females or biological women who identify as males.

In the letter, the ACLU NV warns:

If these polices and practices are passed by the Board of Trustees, Douglas County School District will be in violation of various regulations promulgated by the Nevada Department of Education, various provisions within the NRS, including NRS 651.050(2)…,Title IX, Section 24 of the Nevada Constitution, and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.…

Policies of this nature do not belong in the State of Nevada… Your obligation as a board is to uphold the regulation of this state and to provide a safe and nurturing educational environment free from bullying and judgement…

Any consideration of those policies will be in direct violation of the law and your duties as a board and will result in litigation.

Should the Douglas County School Board of Trustees adopt the policy at the school board meeting on May 16th, and the ACLU NV moves forward with litigation, this will be the first legal test of the Equal Rights Amendment passed by Nevada voters in 2022, and the first Nevada case that will determine if biological females and males are equal to and deserving of legal protection afforded to their transgender classmates.

To note, the House of Representatives passed legislation last month preventing biological males from competing as transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s sports at schools across the country. The measure, known as the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, passed in a 219-203 vote on April 20. All the “yes” votes came from Republicans, and all the “no” votes came from Democrats.