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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Judge Stops Idaho From Enacting Ban on Transgender Athletes

31 replies

howard97A · 18/08/2020 04:11

BOISE, Idaho — A federal judge on Monday issued a temporary injunction to stop Idaho from enacting a law banning transgender girls and women from participating in women’s sports while a legal challenge moves forward.

The ruling means transgender athletes wanting to participate in sports that match their gender identity can do so this fall at the college and secondary school level, The Idaho Statesman reported.

U.S. District Judge David Nye in Idaho ruled that a preliminary injunction is warranted because the plaintiffs are likely to win in court as part of a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union challenging the constitutionality of the law.

www.nytimes.com/aponline/2020/08/17/us/ap-us-transgender-sports-ban-idaho-lawsuit.html

This is so depressing

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MoaMy · 19/08/2020 09:00

I am not a lawyer (or even American) but this Idaho ruling, and one earlier case it calls on for support (Parents for Privacy v. Barr ) appears to say that despite the constitution and Title IX, trans identification makes girls rights to female-only spaces completely null and void, even when it comes to "intimate exposure". It's also notable I think that the court made a really big deal over misgendering.

And from what I could find, the Parents for Privacy v. Barr case has largely gone under the radar, but relatively neutral and pro-trans sources characterize it as yet another simple bathroom case, so it's interesting how quickly it came to be used to support the erosion of women's sports.

Excerpts from the Idaho ruling:

"The Proposed Intervenors claim a significant and protected interest in having and maintaining “female-only competitions and a competitive environment shielded from physiologically advantaged male participants to whom they stand to lose.” Dkt. 30-1, at 7; see also Dkt. 52, at 4 n. 1. Plaintiffs characterize this interest as a mere desire to exclude transgender students from single-sex sports, which is not significantly protectable. Dkt. 45, at 10–11. As Plaintiffs note, the Ninth Circuit has held cisgender students do not have a legally protectable interest in excluding transgender students from single-sex spaces. Parents for Privacy v. Barr, 949 F.3d 1210, 1228 (9th Cir. 2020) (rejecting Title IX and constitutional claims of cisgender students based on having to share single sex restrooms and locker facilities with transgender students)."

"Finally, Plaintiffs argue intervention could prejudice the adjudication of their claims because counsel for the Proposed Intervenors have a history of utilizing misgendering tactics that will delay and impair efficient resolution of litigation. For instance, the Motion to Intervene is replete with references to Lindsay using masculine pronouns and refers to other transgender women by their former male names. The Court is concerned by this conduct, as other courts have denounced such misgendering as degrading, mean, and potentially mentally devastating to transgender individuals. T.B., Jr. ex rel. T.B. v. Prince George’s Cty. Bd. of Educ., 897 F.3d 566, 577 (4th Cir. 2018) (describing student’s harassment of transgender female teacher by referring to her with male gender pronouns as “pure meanness.”); Hampton v. Baldwin, 2018 WL 5830730, at *2 (S.D. Ill. Nov. 7, 2018) (referencing expert testimony that “misgendering transgender people can be degrading, humiliating, invalidating, and mentally devastating.”)"

From: www.aclu.org/legal-document/hecox-v-little-decision-granting-preliminary-injunction?redirect=legal-document/hecox-v-little-motion-granting-preliminary-injunction

Excerpt from the Parents for Privacy v. Barr case which was referenced in the Idaho ruling:

"We agree with the district court and hold that there is no Fourteenth Amendment fundamental privacy right to avoid all risk of intimate exposure to or by a transgender person who was assigned the opposite biological sex at birth. We also hold that a policy that treats all students equally does not discriminate based on sex in violation of Title IX, and that the normal use of privacy facilities does not constitute actionable sexual harassment under Title IX just because a person is transgender. We hold further that the Fourteenth Amendment does not provide a fundamental parental right to determine the bathroom policies of the public schools to which parents may send their children, either independent of the parental right to direct the upbringing and education of their children or encompassed by it. Finally, we hold that the school district’s policy is rationally related to a legitimate state purpose, and does not infringe Plaintiffs’ First Amendment free exercise rights because it does not target religious conduct."

law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca9/18-35708/18-35708-2020-02-12.html

Stellwagen · 19/08/2020 01:15

My limited understanding is that it’s unconstitutional to discriminate under Title IX for Educational activities for both sex (“assigned sex” 😡) and gender identity/transgender status. Sex has been there for a while, gender stuff added by Obama.

I’d be grateful if anyone steeped in US federal law could explain how they decide when one is being used to discriminate against the other. Which trumps which?

I am in no way all that knowledgeable about US Federal Law but I can say that gender has not been added to Title IX. Obama wrote a letter threatening schools with losing their federal funding if they did not interpret "sex" as including gender identity. It was not a law and federal funding for schools is not something that can easily be stopped. About 20 states challenged the letter and a federal judge prohibited the government from enforcing it. Then Trump wrote his own letter advising schools to ignore Obama's letter.

Disappointing decision from this judge but not all that surprising.

nepeta · 19/08/2020 01:10

ACLU has become a very odd organization when it comes to this particular field. I think they see natal women as part of the oppressor class now.

SetYourselfOnFire · 19/08/2020 00:17

They're going to push until women are eradicated from the public sphere, because they hate us, because they ain't us. They're not even pretending otherwise now. Somehow they've corrupted all public institutions never mind that barely anyone agrees with them. What is this, a democracy?

Clymene · 18/08/2020 22:53

We really need to push back on this because it will impact on women's sports globally.

If you haven't signed the petition at savewomensports.com then I would urge you to do so

highame · 18/08/2020 22:23

I think public opinion may have a great deal to say about this.

DianasLasso · 18/08/2020 21:32

That's women's sports stuffed, then. The USA have 3 years till the Olympics after Tokyo in which college coaches, seeing which way the wind is blowing, will pack their squads with transgirls, who will then progress on to national squads. Other countries (China, Russia, Australia) for whom sporting prowess on the world stage is an extention of nationalism will then follow suit so as not to be outdone in the medals tables.

RIP women's sports. I will remember the last 5 years or so fondly, as a halcyon period where it looked like we were finally beginning to be taken seriously.

I suppose there's always rhythmic gymnastics.

Apollo440 · 18/08/2020 21:02

Looking at the comments this is not going to end well.

NotTerfNorCis · 18/08/2020 19:33

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howard97A · 18/08/2020 17:55

Roughly-speaking, the law

  • prevents transgirls from competing in girls’ sports
  • allows people to challenge an athlete’s eligibility to compete in a girls-only event. It would then be incumbent on the athletes to verify their eligibility through an exam or genetic testing.

I agree the second provision is problematic. It could threaten girls’ privacy, and it enables ACLU to claim that they are acting to safeguard the rights of girls, not just the ‘rights’ of trans people.

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zanahoria · 18/08/2020 16:46

In the USA, 'progressive' means whatever big corporations say it is.

zanahoria · 18/08/2020 16:45

The appeal has been launched because the new law can subject athletes to sex testing that could undermine an individual's privacy and civil rights. While I agree with single sex sports, Idaho may not have chosen the best way to enforce it.

FWRLurker · 18/08/2020 16:43

It just seems so obviously wrong - I can’t understand how it’s become “progressive” in the USA to pretend that sport is about gender identity rather than bodies?? It makes no sense at all. Your gender identity does not kick a soccer ball, your testosterone-enhanced leg muscles do.

Also media portraying this as a “trans ban” when it’s not. Trans women can compete with their sex, as always.

I do personally think the Idaho law is slightly flawed using Birth Sex as the rule. While trans women should of course compete with their birth sex, Trans men should Be allowed to compete with men as well - just as any female athlete can choose the mens division in some sports (“open” division in effect). If they aren’t taking T then trans men can compete with women. I have mixed feelings about trans men who have had Elective mastectomies or Hysterectomies competing with women though.

howard97A · 18/08/2020 16:14

Would the challenge in Connecticut have any influence on Idaho?

It’s going through the federal courts, not the Connecticut state courts, so I assume that at some point there will be a judgment that binds all the states. Does this happen only when it gets to Supreme Court? IDK

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highame · 18/08/2020 15:24

Must admit, have a feeling there'll be a mass of challenges when parents get wind of the fact that their daughters will miss out

highame · 18/08/2020 15:23

@howard97A

Highname, there is a case going through the system at the moment (Miller and Yearwood, who have been smashing girls’ track records in Connecticut)
Given they are different States and am not conversant with US law, would the challenge in Connecticut have any influence on Idaho?
nauticant · 18/08/2020 15:07

I see the point more to be about the dissonance the ACLU has.

^ This.

It makes me think of this:

but then so much does these days.
Goosefoot · 18/08/2020 14:38

I'm not sure you can really understand this in terms of conservative vs woke, or progressive vs regressive.

The ACLU used to be none of those things, they supported even civil liberties issues that were quite unpopular among progressives if they dealt with civil liberties - like free speech for fascists of various kinds, for which they received all kinds of nasty flack from the left. They also supported things like access to contraception, or marriage rights for homosexuals. Their interests went across the political spectrum in a variety of directions.

I fist noticed them making strange decisions in terms of the various gay wedding cake controversies, where it seemed they were taking quite a different stance around questions of expression than they had in the past.

howard97A · 18/08/2020 14:27

Highname, there is a case going through the system at the moment (Miller and Yearwood, who have been smashing girls’ track records in Connecticut)

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highame · 18/08/2020 09:43

The Judge seems to think their lawsuit will win therefore it will need a young woman to file a lawsuit after, because I'm sure there will be a public opinion backlash when the implications of this become clear. The US will be asleep now, shame

NotBadConsidering · 18/08/2020 08:28

I see the point more to be about the dissonance the ACLU has.

They think they’re being liberal in a championing the right for males to compete in girls’ sport but they’re actually championing a conservative position that conforming to stereotypes is how people should be classified.

They think they’re being liberal in supporting a minority, but they’re actually taking a conservative position by championing an extension of rights for the male sex class, viewing them as more deserving than women and girls.

They have no insight whatsoever.

DidoLamenting · 18/08/2020 08:14

@Shesapunkpunk

But the US is ultra conservative and as a previous poster highlighted, there is, unsurprisingly, a huge overlap. The US is right wing, even their left is our right. It just is. And hugely regressive.
You are missing the point in this particular legal challenge.

The challenge is not being brought from a conservative point of view, far from it, nor is the judge's decision being made from a conservative point of view. ACLU has successfully challenged restrictive abortion bills.

NotBadConsidering · 18/08/2020 07:59

My limited understanding is that it’s unconstitutional to discriminate under Title IX for Educational activities for both sex (“assigned sex” 😡) and gender identity/transgender status. Sex has been there for a while, gender stuff added by Obama.

I’d be grateful if anyone steeped in US federal law could explain how they decide when one is being used to discriminate against the other. Which trumps which?

Shesapunkpunk · 18/08/2020 07:54

But the US is ultra conservative and as a previous poster highlighted, there is, unsurprisingly, a huge overlap. The US is right wing, even their left is our right. It just is. And hugely regressive.

DidoLamenting · 18/08/2020 07:49

@Shesapunkpunk

Your link is just going to homepage for me Dido please could you explain in your own words what you mean?
ACLU is ultra woke. They are not remotely conservative.

ACLU has for example challenged the very restrictive abortion bills brought in by some states, including Idaho, on the basis of their being unconstitutional.