In recent days, there have been a spate of executive orders, some of which have questionable legal or practical effect, which have been issued by the White House.
One of them addresses the presence of transgender athletes in women’s sports. Issued Feb. 5th, it seeks to rescind federal funding from educational programs that allow transgender people to compete on female teams.
There have been legal challenges filed. One is a lawsuit, filed in New Hampshire by two transgender high-school students, claiming that this executive order violates the Constitution and Title IX.
Another is from a parent in Massachusetts invoking Title IX in alleging that the current allowance of boys in field hockey in the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association contravenes that 1972 statute.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll reiterate it here: there is no place for government to determine eligibility to play a particular sport. That determination needs to be left to either the rulesmakers or the governing bodies of sport. They are the people who know best as to who is eligibie to participate.
Bureaucrats in Washington don’t have a clue as to the nuances of competition, the science behind gender differences, or the interests of the very people who run the sports that the U.S. government seeks to control.
In short, this is government overreach at its worst.