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States vow to challenge Biden’s proposed policy allowing biological males to play women’s sports – LifeSite

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(<LifeSiteNews) — Republican state officials are pledging to fight pending Title IX rules that would prevent federally funded schools from banning males from female sports teams.

On April 6, the U.S. Department of Education proposed a regulation under which “schools would not be permitted to adopt or apply a one-size-fits-all policy that categorically bans transgender students from participating on teams consistent with their gender identity.”

Twenty states already have laws preventing transgender athletes from competing against the opposite sex, and many of these have vowed to defend these laws should they be threatened by new federal regulations.

“South Dakota will not allow this to stand … Only girls will play girls’ sports,” South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem tweeted Thursday. “President Biden, we’ll see you in court,” she added.

Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen slammed the proposal in a statement to the Washington Examiner, arguing that it “will destroy women’s sports and take away athletic opportunities for young girls.”

“This is yet another attack on the rights of women and girls by the Biden administration in their attempt to erase biological facts and push their radical gender ideology agenda on Americans,” he continued. “I will continue to use every tool in my arsenal to fight for equal opportunities for women and girls and uphold Montana’s law against federal overreach.”

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron pointed out to the Examiner that “this is not the first time the Biden administration has attempted to redefine Title IX to force schools to allow biological males to compete on girls’ sports teams.”

Last July, Cameron joined 18 other attorneys general in challenging the Department of Education and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s guidance on transgender athletes, resulting in a preliminary injunction granted by the federal district court.

Cameron declared he would “continue this fight” by arguing his state’s case against the new regulation before the Sixth Circuit.

Similarly, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin has said he would “sue to block” the Biden administration’s proposal, if adopted.

Officials from several other states have chimed in, including Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador, who commented to the Washington Examiner that the “rule is unfair, unscientific, and will further erode the legal protections that pioneering women athletes fought so hard to obtain.”

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, and Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita have also voiced their opposition.

Reynolds had particularly harsh words for the proposal.

“This new rule, proposed by the Biden administration, creates a loophole for biological men to unfairly compete in women’s sports. It’s a slap in the face to female athletes across the country, both past and present,” she said in a Thursday statement.

In February, a coalition of 28 groups, including attorneys, civil rights groups, former education officials, and parents, urged Biden to “abandon plans” to allow males to compete against females in schools.

They argued in a letter to the Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona that his department “does not have the legal authority to issue regulations that would subvert rather than fulfill the requirements of Title IX by permitting or requiring biological males who identify as females to compete in sex-separated women’s sports and to use the intimate facilities and shared spaces of female students.”

“We anticipate that the coming rulemaking on athletics will similarly conflate gender identity with Title IX’s sex-based protections and degrade those very protections,” they added.

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