Connecticut high school athletes file Title IX complaint over mixed sex competition

[GrinitchSpinach]

The brave Selina Soule and two other female high school athletes are being represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a right-wing religious liberty-focused organization. I wish someone on the left would take these cases, but as the ACLU etc have explicitly supported the end of single-sex sports, these girls don't really have anywhere else to turn.

Press release here:

“Girls deserve to compete on a level playing field. Forcing female athletes to compete against boys is grossly unfair and destroys their athletic opportunities,” said ADF Legal Counsel Christiana Holcomb. “Title IX was designed to eliminate discrimination against women in education and athletics, and women fought long and hard to earn the equal athletic opportunities that Title IX provides. Allowing boys to compete in girls’ sports reverses nearly 50 years of advances for women under this law. We shouldn’t force these young women to be spectators in their own sports.”

The complaint asks the Office for Civil Rights to investigate the violations of Title IX and require CIAC to revise its flawed policy. The complaint further asks OCR to require the conference to acknowledge every girl who would have been identified as a champion or who would have qualified for participation in a higher level competition but for the participation of a male in her event.

www.adflegal.org/detailspages/press-release-details/female-athletes-challenge-connecticut-policy-that-abolishes-girls-only-sports?_ga=2.252534601.1710949560.1560904360-1859844914.1560904360

Selina and attorney interviewed by Tucker Carlson of Fox here:

Previous threads about Selina speaking out:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3562710-Are-you-a-parent-of-a-girl-whos-doing-well-in-sport-You-need-to-listen-to-Selina-Soule?pg=1

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3519465-Student-who-lost-track-championship-to-transgender-athletes-speaks-out

Previous AIBU thread about one of the competitions at issue:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3271449-In-Connecticut-two-teenage-boys-who-identify-as-girls-have-come-1st-and-2nd-in-the-girls-100m-sprint?msgid=78542060#78542060

Hats off to Selina Soule. She could make herstory here. I will be watching this closely as it develops.

Could someone on Twitter draw Martina Navratilova’s attention to this? I imagine her support would be much appreciated.
Courage calls to courage.

Belated update:

The US Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights has opened an investigation into Soule's (et al) complaint.

In the letter, the OCR says it will investigate whether the CIAC and the Glastonbury Board of Education have “denied equal athletic benefits and opportunities to girls” through the transgender participation policy.

The OCR said it will also investigate whether the CIAC retaliated against one of the complainants for her advocacy against the transgender policy by informing her in March, 2019 that the CIAC’s executive director would no longer accept communications from her.

And OCR said it will look into whether the Glastonbury district “retaliated” against a student when, the letter says, her track coach replaced her on a sprint medley team in Feb. 2019; told her and her parents that he could not give a good report to college coaches about her; and denied her a position as a team captain.

www.middletownpress.com/middletown/article/Federal-agency-to-investigate-CT-transgender-high-14300744.php

The decision to investigate is no guarantee that the Office will find in the girls' favor, but this is a vital first step if the federal government is ever to stand up for girls in public education.

Thanks for the update

That's a small step. Thank you GrinitchSpinach
These really are brave young women standing up to these intolerant bullies.

From what I can see the ACLU puts out FB posts about trans women/girls in sport frequently and the comments are almost always very unsupportive.

Thank you. I feel so sad reading all about this case. I have NO IDEA how anyone can justify biological males competing in women's sport. I just don't understand how it can be defended and I think that's what's so upsetting and frustrating. Selina is so so brave. She must be so strong and I hope she continues to be. Thank you for stepping up when few others do!

Brave girls

when, the letter says, her track coach replaced her on a sprint medley team in Feb. 2019; told her and her parents that he could not give a good report to college coaches about her; and denied her a position as a team captain.

A girl is standing up for her rights and will be punished with restricting her opportunities for higher education. FFS

FTFY: A girl is standing up for her rights and a man will punish her by restricting her opportunities for higher education.

The coach is a man. A man is choosing to do this to a girl who stands up for her and other girls' rights.

Thanks GrinitchSpinach

And indeed bd67th - I hope that man doesn’t have a wife or children. It’s bad enough that in his position as coach of YA he’ll be looked up to and his opinions emulated. And his position allows him the power to affect a young woman’s whole life.

He clearly doesn’t like women, and what an example to set to children.

Every time trans women and women’s sport is mentioned on Twitter it is followed by what women competitors need to do and why are they allowing this. Selina is the result, She has lost so much, she has had her future athletics career jeopardised. I am going to cut and paste and every time I see tweets asking why women are standing by I will paste her coaches actions and threats.

Thanks, all.

I agree this is such a good example of the well-justified fear that girls and women face when deciding whether it's safe to object to the loss of our sex-based rights, and of the gaslighting we're dealt when we decide to go ahead with formal objections. Depressing all around, but so bleak that I hope it's galvanizing? Ugh.