U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona backs biological men who say they are “transgender women” to compete against biological women in sports despite evidence that men have a physiological advantage.
Cardona spoke with ESPN about the issue, which has caused 33 states as of April 2021 to craft legislation to protect women from unfair competition based on the federal statute Title IX, which prohibits discrimination against women based on their biological sex.
ESPN reported on the development, using the terminology promoted by LGBT activists, including “cisgender” to describe normal men and women who accept their biological sex:
In 2020, four cisgender female high school athletes filed a federal lawsuit in Connecticut claiming it was unfair and discriminatory that cisgender athletes had to compete against transgender athletes. The lawsuit sought to reverse the state’s interscholastic athletic conference’s policy that allowed transgender athletes to compete based on their gender identity rather than their birth sex.
Also last year, then-Education Secretary Betsy DeVos threatened to withhold funding to the Connecticut schools aligned with the athletic conference, claiming that the policy that allowed transgender athletes to compete as girls violated the Title IX rights of cisgender girls. The U.S. Department of Education withdrew that support shortly after Biden took office, and a judge dismissed the lawsuit on procedural grounds in April.
On Monday, the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights begins a weeklong series of virtual public hearings to gather input on Title IX enforcement, which includes many issues that intersect sports: the rights of transgender athletes, athletes involved in reports of sexual violence or sexual harassment, and equal athletic opportunities provided to female and male athletes.
“I do believe in local control,” Cardona said. “I do believe in state control, but we do have a responsibility to protect the civil rights of students. And if we feel the civil rights are being violated, we will act.”
“Our LGBTQ students have endured more harassment than most other groups,” Cardona said, repeating the left’s talking points. “It’s critically important that we stand with them and give them opportunities to engage in what every other child can engage in without harassment.”
Cardona was the commissioner of education in Connecticut before joining President Joe Biden’s cabinet.
“It’s their right as a student to participate in these activities. And we know sports does more than just put ribbons on the first-, second and third-place winner,” Cardona said. “We know that it provides opportunities for students to become a part of a team, to learn a lot about themselves, to set goals and reach them, and to challenge themselves. Athletics provides that in our K-12 systems and in our colleges, and all students deserve an opportunity to engage in that.”
“ESPN asked Cardona about the backlog of about 450 pending investigations into schools for their handling of Title IX complaints regarding sexual violence and harassment, including some that have dragged on for years, such as the investigation into Baylor University that began in 2016,” ESPN reported.
“That’s a priority for me,” Cardona said in the ESPN report. “We need to do better. Every case is a face. Every case that’s waiting is a student that felt harassed or violated, and they deserve an opportunity to be heard and a ruling to take place,” he said, adding that the upcoming budget includes an allocation for more staff in the department’s Office for Civil Rights, which oversees the investigations.
ESPN reported that Cardona admitted that Title IV had helped women athletes.
“There are 1.3 million less opportunities for girls to compete in high school sports than there are for boys,” Cardona said. “And we know at the college level, it’s probably similar,” Cardona said.
“Last month, the department’s Office for Civil Rights filed a legal brief in support of Michigan State female swimmers and divers who had filed a Title IX lawsuit arguing that the elimination of their program in October 2020 was discriminatory,” ESPN reported. “They appealed a district court ruling against them, and the case is now pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.”
Follow Penny Starr on Twitter or send news tips to pstarr@breitbart.com
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