Penna Dexter

There’s nothing like a looming re-election battle to derail, or at least delay, a politician’s campaign promises — especially radical ones like allowing men to compete in female sports.

In July 2022, the Biden Administration released a proposed revision to Title IX that effectively forces every school district to allow transgender athletes to compete in school sports. This means biological men on women’s teams and in their locker rooms.

The Washington Stand points to the latest Gallop poll on the issue, which shows that nearly “70% of Americans — including 55 percent of Democrats — don’t want their daughters on teams competing with biological boys.”

The new guidelines were scheduled to be released in May, and then pushed out to October and look likely to miss that deadline. The regulations have not even been sent to the Office of Management and Budget for review, a necessary step that can take up to 120 days.

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 was passed in recognition of the inherent distinction between men and women. It prohibits discrimination based on sex in any educational program or activity that receives federal assistance. A huge beneficiary has been women’s sports.

Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville says he coached girls’ basketball when Title IX kicked in and the numbers of girls playing high school sports exploded. The senator explained that Title IX “opened up facilities, funding, athletic scholarships — and almost immediately you saw the rise and dedication of women’s sports across our country.”

The Department of Education reports a “historic number of comments” on this issue. Family Research Council’s Meg Kilgannon, an education official in the Trump Administration, told The Washington Stand, “The fact that the rule isn’t final means that overwhelming public comments made a difference.” She expects the rule to be published closer to the election “to get the rule in place late in the game, and deal with the consequences after the election.”

They are stalling, but not dropping this.