Get The Facts

Trans and intersex kids are treasured parts of our communities – and all children deserve equal access to the opportunities and experiences that sports can provide. No child should ever be excluded just because of who they are – and all kids deserve to play!

All students should have the opportunity to fully participate in school sports free from discrimination based on sex, including gender identity and transgender status. As a broad civil rights law, Title IX aims to ensure that all students can access the benefits and opportunities of an education free from sex discrimination, including in school activities, like sports.

Since Title IX’s implementing regulations were first issued in 1975, Title IX has allowed, but not required, schools to have sex-separated sports teams where “selection for such teams is based on competitive skill or the activity involved in a competitive sport.” It has also required that schools provide equal opportunity in their sports programs.

Despite this broad mandate, extremists have been working hard to stop LGBTQI+ students from being their full selves in schools, including by targeting trans, nonbinary, and intersex students’ right to play sports alongside their peers. To date, 21 states have passed laws that categorically ban trans student athletes from participating on the team that aligns with their gender identity.

The rule would prohibit schools from categorically banning trans students from participating in sports consistent with their gender Identity. This means that the 21 states with blanket bans that prohibit trans students from playing on sports consistent with their gender identity would be in violation of Title IX.

The rule would also:

Effectively prohibit elementary schools, middle schools, and in most cases, high schools from adopting rules that prevent trans students from participating in school sports consistent with their gender identity.

Provide that a school can only limit or deny a student’s eligibility to participate on a school sports team consistent with their gender identity in rare circumstances. Specifically, for each sport, level of competition, and grade or education level, any such restriction must:

be substantially related to an important educational objective and minimize harm to any student whose opportunity to participate on a team consistent with their gender identity is limited or denied.

Prohibit schools from relying on justifications that do not reflect important educational objectives and that are transphobic:

Schools could not justify an exclusion of trans students from playing sports based on disapproval of trans students, a desire to harm a particular student, a desire to exclude trans students from sports, adherence to sex stereotypes, or for administrative convenience.

Importantly, schools could also not justify an exclusion of trans students based on over broad generalizations or false assumptions, such as restrictions that assume physical advantages for trans athletes across all sports. For example, schools would not be able to assume that trans women and girls have the same physical abilities as cisgender boys and men.

It does not immediately go into effect: this is a proposed rule that the public will be able to weigh in on during the 30-day comment period (until May 15, 2023), and it is possible the Department will make changes and revisions to the text before finalizing it. This means that, especially with anti-trans bans active in 21 states, it is very important to continue fighting against proposed state and local policies that would bully and exclude LGBTQI+ youth in education and other areas of life.

It does not require that schools limit trans students’ participation in athletics in any way: the 15 states (including DC) that currently allow trans students to participate in K-12 sports consistent with gender identity would already be in compliance with the Title IX athletics rule as proposed.

It should go without saying that policies which fully include trans women and girls on sports teams with other women and girls harm no one. Women’s rights and gender justice organizations overwhelmingly support inclusion of trans women and girls in sports, and reject sports bans for dangerously targeting trans women and girls and relying on sex-based stereotypes and inaccuracies to justify bans. Policies that fully include trans women and girls on sports teams with other women and girls harm no one, and sports bans limiting or denying their participation in sports do nothing to address the very serious problems that do exist in women and girls’ sports, such as fewer opportunities to play, second-class resources, and pervasive sexual abuse of student athletes by doctors and coaches.

The latest scientific research is clear: trans women and girls do not show any ‘advantage’ over cisgender girls and women. In fact, policies that impact trans women’s participation in sports are the continuation of a long history of exclusion of women from competitive sports – an exclusion that resulted in the introduction of a ‘women’s’ category of sports in the first place. For young people, who are playing for fun, for community, and to learn important life lessons, it’s clear that there is no ‘scientific’ reason to scrutinize their bodies or exclude them - they simply deserve equal opportunities to play.

Tell the government that we want full inclusion of all trans youth – from kindergarten to college – because all kids deserve to play! We want to hear from EVERYONE: athletes, former athletes, coaches, teachers, parents, members of our trans + intersex community of all ages, and allies!

If you’re a supportive adult, you can submit your comment here.

If you’re under 18, you can submit your comment here.

And make sure to spread the word!