Title IX to cover queer, transgender people
Revisions to Title IX’s regulations that are expected to be proposed by the White House in April will affirm explicitly for the first time that Title IX’s protections cover queer and transgender people. The regulations’ prohibition of sex discrimination in education will include discrimination based on “sex stereotypes, sex-related characteristics (including intersex traits), pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identify,” the Washington Post reported.
Backing up the supportive stance of the Biden Administration, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona posted a 2021 video conversation with his cousin Alex Cardona, a young transgender man, in which the Secretary says, “I also want to send a message really loud and clear: We’ve got your back, that our schools need to be safe places for all students.”
Conservative state legislators introduced a record 238 anti-LGBT bills in 2022 so far, half of them targeting transgender people and many of them focused on K-12 students, an NBC analysis found. Students at all levels of education are feeling the anti-queer intent of these bills in the atmosphere on campuses.
The governors of Utah and Indiana recently vetoed bills that tried to block transgender girls from playing school sports. Only four of 85,000 Utah students are transgender athletes; only one of them is a girl, and no one has complained about her having any physical advantage, but that has not stopped conservatives from manufacturing controversy. The Utah governor gave an eloquent statement on his reasoning, adding, ““Rarely has so much fear and anger been directed at so few.” But the Utah legislature overturned his veto. A lawsuit seems inevitable. And at this writing, there’s no word on whether the Arizona governor will veto a similar bill. Only 16 of 170,000 high school athletes there are transgender.
Elsewhere
The University of Michigan peppered the news in Title IX-related stories this past week in ways that left a bad aftertaste. The university will create a standing multidisciplinary committee called the Coordinated Community Response Team, a common strategy to try to prevent sexual misconduct on campus. That plan is part of a settlement of a class-action lawsuit filed last spring by student survivors of sexual assault there, who said Michigan failed to stop decades of abuse by a former university doctor. The settlement is on top of Michigan’s January 2022 agreement to pay $490 million to settle claims by more than 1,000 alleged victims of the doctor. Meanwhile, eight women filed a new suit against the University of Michigan and a former music lecturer accused of rape and other sexual misconduct spanning years.
In athletics news, the University of Michigan plans to spend $41 million on new scoreboards for its football stadium. But the university significantly shortchanges women athletes in both playing opportunities and spending, according to the federal Equity in Athletics Data Analysis (EADA) website. For example, if you don’t count men who are practice players on women’s teams as women (yes, that’s a thing), then women get only 45% of the NCAA playing opportunities at Michigan even though they are 50% of eligible undergraduates. If Michigan gave women their fair share of playing opportunities, they’d owe them another $1.5 million in financial aid that they’ve being denied. And the university pays head coaches of men’s teams an average $645,000 more than head coaches of women’s teams why, exactly?
In related news, 17 current and former athletes filed a class action suit against San Diego State University, claiming the school cheats women athletes out of half a million in athletics financial aid per year.
Trustees of Tarant County College, Texas unanimously started the process of firing its chancellor after a lawsuit alleged that he abused and retaliated against a female employee in violation of Title IX and other laws. Yeshiva University in New York will make some changes to its handling of sexual assault complaints following a student’s article saying she was raped by a member of the basketball team and the university made her sign a nondisclosure agreement before it would release results of an investigation. An indigenous scholar sued Michigan State University, saying her boss, an associate professor of anthropology, harassed her for years and the university retaliated when she finally reported him.
The Title IX Blog posed an interesting question: Some schools and athletics conferences have policies against accepting players with histories of Title IX and interpersonal violence complaints, so why not apply similar policies to coaches?
Students at Homewood-Flossmore High School in the Chicago area staged a second walk-out to protest administrators’ handling of sexual assault complaints.
On the up side
A New York Times columnist detailed some of the financial improvements for women college athletes since the NCAA got shamed into treating them better in the past year. Basketball great Candace Parker is releasing a documentary to air on TBS on April 2 called Title IX: 37 Words that Changed America, showcasing changes in athletics since the law passed.
New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Massachusetts have passed bills requiring college employees and students to get training in preventing and responding to sexual assaults, and a similar bill is moving through the Maine legislature.
Two items not directly Title IX related are interesting: The Queen of Basketball won the 2022 Academy Award for best short subject documentary. And Boston University will let students change their names in the directory from their legal to their chosen names. That will be of help not only to transgender students but to anyone (like me) who uses a nickname as their primary name.
Where you’ll find me
April 1, 11:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m. ET — The University of Virginia hosts an all-day seminar on “Fifty Years of Title IX,” with me on a panel discussing the intersectional failings of Title IX at 3:45 pm ET.
April 2, 1:30-3:00 pm ET — I’ll be in Boston speaking on a panel at the Organization of American Historians annual conference. Check out a two-minute video preview of our panel.
April 12 — Book publication day! From 12 noon to 1 p.m. PT at San Francisco State University, the school’s chapter of NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists hosts a live gathering of students and a give-away of books by three authors (including moi) who will join via Zoom. I’ll be there virtually with Vanessa Hua and Lucy Jane Bledsoe. Later, join me live at 7 p.m. ET for a 37 Words book launch event at Norwich Bookstore in Vermont. I’ll be in conversation with my guest Kate Rohdenburg of WISE, the only advocacy organization in the Upper Valley supporting survivors of gender-based violence. Twenty percent of proceeds from sales of my book at the event will be donated to WISE!
April 13, 2:00-3:00 p.m. ET — You’re invited to a lively Zoom discussion between me and Kenyora Parham, executive director of End Rape on Campus, as we talk about 37 Words during Sexual Assault Awareness Month. I’ll post links when available.
April 21, 7 p.m. ET — A virtual get-together with the Washington, D.C. chapter of NOW. RSVP here.
May 26, 6:30 p.m. PT — A virtual get-together with the Riverside, Calif. chapter of the National Organization for Women (NOW).
June 9, 7 p.m. PT — Join me and Lucy Jane Bledsoe, author of the new Young Adult novel No Stopping Us Now, at an event hosted by Green Apple Books on the Park, San Francisco. We’re not sure yet if this will be live or virtual. Stay tuned!
June 23, 3:00-4:30 p.m. ET — It’s Title IX’s 50th birthday! I’ll be Zooming with members of the Association of Title IX Administrators (ATIXA) to celebrate. Read details here.
The New York Historical Society’s Center for Women’s History & Academic Affairs posted a discussion with me and some of the earliest Title IX activists. Part of the Max Conference on Women’s History, it will be on their website throughout March and then remain on YouTube.
If you registered for the American Historical Association 2022 conference, you can watch a video that will be available through June of our panel session on “Fifty Years of Title IX: Evolutions in the Struggle Against Sex Discrimination in Education.”
The Nation magazine published an excerpt from my chapter 5. Check it out!
Here’s where you’ll find links to preorder 37 Words: Title IX and Fifty Years of Fighting Sex Discrimination. Preorders are so helpful! Thanks for your support.
