"Can transgender athletes be protected to play under Title IX?"
Introduction:
???????????Title IX of the American constitution states that in the United States of America no person shall face discrimination under an education program or activity that acquires Federal Finance Assistance because of sex, nor one shall be excluded from participation or face any sort of denial after being a deserved entity of benefits. As per the law, no one should face any kind of discrimination on the basis of Race, Religion, Gender, and Sex Orientation. If there is boys’ basketball in the school, college, or university, there should be a girls’ Basket Ball team as well. There should be counseling for all be they male, female, or transgender. Teachers should teach and give attention to everyone regarding of students’ gender, sex, race, religion, or sexual orientation. The responsibilities and tasks assigned should be for all. Women whether parenting or pregnant are allowed to participate in each and every activity in school, college, or in University.
While dealing with the concept of Harassment(Pethel, 2022). It should be noted that Harassment is Harassment and no one should be discriminated against while dealing with a victim and culprit of harassment. Now American society has evolved and when Title IX was formed, the debate for LGBTQ was irrelevant and society was not aware of the severity of the problem, but after 50 years, since the Law was implemented, people are demanding that another important segment of the society suffering and facing discrimination in different walk of lives should be the part of the Law. Although the law indicates categorically that it protects the rights of every American citizen regardless of sexual orientation, ambiguities and complications exist in a society that needs to be addressed through the law. And a good sign is that it is a doable task but requires commitment from the authorities, society should be more vocal and open to debate, and comprehension of the severity of the problem.
Title IX
Title IX was introduced by Congress in 1972. It protected women from discrimination at School, College, and the University level. While talking about discrimination it was referred to discrimination in school-sponsored schools. At the time of 1972, when America was in the phase of transformation and society was facing many challenges and changes. At this time, Congress represented a bill that later became a law known as Title IX(STEVENSON, 2007). Before this law, there was only 15% of college athletes were women, and at the school level, the participation in terms of percentage was only 7%. Title IX suggested that sports should be more equal and that equality means equal participation and treatment. The government decided to define rules of fairness, hence, it was decided to categorize the rules into three tiers.
a.????Proportionality
b.????Progress
c.????Satisfied interest
While describing proportionality, it was decided that if there were 51 percent of girls in an institution, there should be 51% opportunity for them(Boschert, 2022). While progress means, an institution would have to develop a sports environment for girls and submit its report to the government and they would examine their progress(Kaestner & Xin Xu, 2010). Additionally, there should be new sports for girls. And for Satisfied-interest, the government instructed institutions to conduct surveys on a daily basis in which they would ask questions to girls regarding their specific interest in the sports. It also refers to the activity of the institution in which it had to find out the popular sports as per the locality and the formation of teams based on the interest of girls. While discussing quality it is quite important to highlight the meaning of “quality”.
a.????Equality in Equipment or Supply
?In Title IX, it has been emphasized that the quality should also be equal. That refers that the equipment and the amount of supply of sports material should be equal, for instance, if a school, college or university, or any other institution, buy equipment for Basket Ball team for boys, and it purchasing tools and kits for boys’ team and maintains the standard in everything related to sports, it is mandatory to the for girls’ team as well of the same quality, amount and standard. There should be equality
b.????Equality in Publicity:
There should be equality in publicity, marketing, and campaigning for the sport in which girls participate too. According to Title IX, it would be the ultimate violation of the law if girls’ sports don’t take full intention, support, Marketing Campaign resources, and Media coverage as the boys’ sports get.
c.????Scheduling of game and practice time
It is quite important for the sports to decide the time for the convenience of the audience so that a maximum crowd can come to the stadium to watch sports. The number of audience in the ground encourages sportsmen to play beyond their potential. Hence, if an event is conducted on Friday evening, there is the possibility that a maximum number of crowds will come to watch the match. Thus, Title IX ensures that education authorities should not discriminate in this part as well. If the boys’ game is conducted on Friday evening, it is necessary that girls’ sports should also be conducted on a similar day so that a maximum number of crowds can watch the sports.
d.????Quality of Coaches:
It is also very important to notice that girls should be provided the best quality coaches for particular sports as the boys’ sports. Owing to the fact that if boys get quality coaches and girls get poor quality coaches, there will be a difference in the quality of sports they play. Hence, educational institutions will be considered committing the heinous crime of discrimination against girls and violating the law mentioned in Title IX.?
There are other aspects as well regarding equality in sports for girls. Girls should be allowed to possess their separate locker rooms (McFall & Perkiss, 2022). There should a proper and equally equipped and facilitated practice spaces. There should be an equal provision of competitive medical facilities. Hence, the implementation of Title IX is also the responsibility of Society as well. If people feel that they are getting discriminated against in this regard, they should highlight the issue to the higher authorities so that they can take result-oriented action to implement the essence of the law against discrimination.
States Law:
???????????In the United States of America, there is a provincial authority. That means 50 states of the United States of America are independent to take their own decisions except for matters related to Finance, defense, Communication, and Foreign Affairs. Hence, it is quite important to note that Title IX was passed by Congress and in the beginning, it was the subject of the Federal state but because of the severity of the issue, (as it protects women from any type of discrimination), States transformed their laws according to it because it wasn’t the issue of Federal but the Federation. So now, Title IX is also part of State law. Now there is also a debate spurred by society to discuss the matters of LGBTQ and transgender, especially whether they get protection from the Law or not.
They also face discrimination in every walk of life generally and in sports particularly. They face harassment as well. According to the survey, 87% of transgender claim to get verbal harassment and 40% of them mentioned that they have faced physical harassment in their lives. Consequently, 40% of them who faced harassment felt unsafe and tried to commit suicide. This figure is 3 times higher than the straight people who faced harassment at school, college, or university level. While 29% attempted suicide and this number is twice that the straight people committed it.
The repercussion of harassment:
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???????????There are many forms of harassment. It could be done on Social Media, through texting or email, sexual touching, bad gesture, verbal sexual abuse, sexual contact without the consent of the person, or sexual assault whether at school or outside the school. Harassment should be discouraged wherever it takes place and whoever commits this should be punished severely. Because the harasser could be everyone. It could be a Teacher, Student, or School staff member. The repercussion of this heinous crime is quite alarming for individuals and for society as well. As per the study, of the people who face harassment, 87% of them faced a negative impact on their education, and personal and professional lives and 81% of them told that they have quitted socializing and now they feel quite insecure in school, college, university and at the workplace.
Harassment whether in school, college, education, or the workplace, leaves a drastic and devastating impact on the life of the victims. It hurts emotionally and they feel insure to make new friends or colleagues, they feel fear to go to public places and they decide to spend their lives in a state of isolation and ultimately they become introverts. Furthermore, they couldn’t complete their education and as a result, they get poor grades, and face dropping out or skipping school. Resultantly, they and their families suffer economic damage. People belonging to the transgender community fail to use their potential and become vital players in society, particularly in sports.
Why have states banned transgender to participate in Sports?
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???????????The next battle that Title IX has to fight is against the discrimination faced by transgender in American society. Now the rights of Transgender are a dividing point in America. People are concerned regarding their rights. There is a debate that discusses whether Title IX is capable enough to protect the rights of Transgender or whether there is room for an amendment to the law. While Biden Administration has given a green signal in this regard. The President of one of his speeches said that “transgender should enjoy the same rights as women do in Title IX”. It is quite important to bring this fact to the notice that there are 15.3 million high school students in the United States of America and 1.8% (275,000) of them are transgender stated to CDC. And a number of transgender participating in sports provide quite a discouraging figure. As the Human Rights Campaign suggests that there should be 15% participation of transgender is mandatory. On the contrary, it is quite a discouraging fact that 19 states in the United States of America have banned transgender to participate in sports. Some states give rationale that people of transgender eating the rights of people who are non-transgender. To understand this phenomenon, it is quite important to understand the difference between sex, gender, transgender, and intersex.
SEX:
???????????It is the classification of both males and females in which both entities are recognized by their body parts and organs.???
Gender:
???????????It is a classification of males and females based on their self-representation and the way a person is responded to by the social institution.
Transgender:
???????????He is the person in whom gender expression does not follow cultural norms. His or her gender identity is different from his or the sex assigned at the time of his or her birth.
Intersex:
???????????It is a situation of a person in which biological sex is ambiguous. It is because of genetic, hormonal, or anatomical variation caused by Klinefelter Syndrome or adrenal Hyperplasia.
The states that banned transgender to participate in sports due to the fact that they feel that because of the sexual orientation of transgender is not defined and restrict people to participate who have definite sexual orientation in sports. Resultantly, authorities of the state decided to allow to participate in the sports activity only those whose sexual orientation is defined by the state. They justify their argument by saying that transgender should be a separate category and it shouldn’t be mixed with women Title IX protects the rights of women in its letter and spirit but it shouldn’t be confused with transgender because it will be discrimination against the people who are transgender but their tendency show that they are male. If we allow transgender, there are possibilities that we allow or give permission to those individuals who look like women but they are male and because of ambiguity they are not allowed to participate in the sports activity.
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Federal Law:
Civil Liberties Union of the American Civil Society has filed a lawsuit against the authorities of Tennessee owing to the fact that they banned transgender to participate in school sports. This act was done on the behalf of Lue Esqivel who plays golf, he was assigned the sex of female at the time of his birth but back in 2019, according to his parents, he identified as male.
As per his statement made by him, He was trying to do something new for the boys’ golf team. If I am approved, it will be a new experience for me to compete with boys and learn from boys, and share a dressing room with them. For this purpose, it is very important that a legislature needs to be passed otherwise, I and people like me will be discriminated against and we will not be allowed to participate in sports. It will be discouraging and disappointing for us. We want to play and enjoy the game.
There are other examples as well. Kyla Peterson, at the time of birth, was assigned sex as female. She got selected for the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union. Once the school adopted legislation related to the inclusion of transgender girls in 2014. When she was in school, she had a physical appearance like a man. Consequently, people called her a “monster”.
There is a hot debate on this issue. Different aspects of the legislation are on the table, for instance, the use of school bathrooms for transgender students, Schools should teach regarding sexual orientation and gender identity, and parental consent for gender confirmation.
The central point of the debate is fairness in competition and to address this issue long and extensive research is required because it is a complicated issue to address. It is a notable fact that trans women have an advantage, resultantly, it cannot be fair. ?
?In the month of May, Indiana officials asked the Federal government to intervene in the matter to give rights to transgender and transsexual people to participate in sports. They are the citizen of the country they should be provided equal opportunity in sports they are not only a law-abiding citizen but also good athletes that can contribute tremendously to the state and the country.?
Conclusion:
???????????Title IX depicts the true essence of human rights. The United States of America is known as the land of opportunities even for outsiders, thus, the Federal ensures that every citizen of the country can avail of opportunity in every walk of life. Title IX is for people who face any kind of discrimination. When the law was formed, the right of women was a hot discussion in American society and Title IX addressed the issue quite comprehensively. As American society has evolved further, now in the contemporary world, America is also concerned about the rights of transgender. Although Title IX does not mention the rights of LGBTQ people the essence of the law suggests that people who belong to the transgender community are and should be part of this law. Title IX is the proper roadmap to address the concern of transgender people who are facing discrimination in any form. According to a recent study, there is 1.6 million transgender in the United States of America. The provision of equal opportunity and rights in every walk of life generally and in sports specifically is the ultimate right of these people committed by the Federal and the State in the country. There is a dire need to form substantial guidelines on this matter. For this purpose, there should be a concrete legal debate is required and the legislature of Federal and state should sit together and formulate laws that can address the complexity of the matter. They should be allowed to play sports for their physical and mental health at least. It is the basic human right of every citizen living in the United States of America. If they face discrimination, it will put a negative impact on their social, physical, and economic lives. Now transgender people are facing the same discrimination as women were facing before 1972. There is an opportunity for the legislature to amend Title IX and protect the right of transgender people. Although some states raised some genuine concern regarding the participation of transgender in sports owing to the fact that in some cases, the participation of transgender people restricts non-transgender people to participate in sports because of the ambiguity in gender and sex, furthermore it complicates the matter severely. But these problems are there to be resolved and it shouldn’t mean that people of one community should be banned or restricted from participation in sports.