The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has opened an investigation into the Oregon Department of Education (ODE). This comes amid allegations that ODE’s policies allow males to compete in female sports in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972’s (Title IX) prohibition on sex discrimination.
OCR opened this investigation based on a compliant it received from the America First Policy Institute (AFPI), a non-profit policy center, which seeks to defend individual liberty, equal opportunity, and the rule of law.
“In the last six months, the Trump Administration has made historic strides in cleaning up the countless failures of the Biden Administration, including the prior Administration’s dedication to gender ideology extremism. Oregon appears to have missed the message: The Trump Administration will not allow educational institutions that receive federal funds to continue trampling upon women’s rights,” said Acting Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Craig Trainor. “If Oregon is permitting males to compete in women’s sports, it is allowing these males to steal the accolades and opportunities that female competitors have rightfully earned through hard work and grit, while callously disregarding women’s and girls’ safety, dignity, and privacy. Title IX does not permit that shameful arrangement, and we will not tolerate it.”
“Thanks to Secretary McMahon’s leadership, this investigation is moving forward as a vital step toward restoring equal opportunity in women’s athletics," said Jessica Hart Steinmann, Executive General Counsel, America First Policy Institute. "Title IX was meant to protect girls — not to undermine them — and we’re hopeful this signals a return to that original purpose.”
Background
According to AFPI’s complaint, ODE’s guidance specifies that it will follow Oregon’s “nondiscrimination law” holding that “schools are prohibited from excluding gender expansive students from participating in school athletics and activities that align with their...gender identity.” State laws do not override federal antidiscrimination laws, and ODE and its member schools remain subject to Title IX and its implementing regulations.
The complaint alleges that multiple high-school aged female athletes in Oregon lost “medal awards, placements, and other competitive opportunities” to biological males and suffered “heightened stress, intimidation, and emotional distress” in anticipation of competing against them. It further alleges that ODE “chilled speech and coerced silence” from these female athletes, who were reportedly “explicitly or implicitly told by school authorities not to question or complain about the inclusion of male athletes in girls’ categories.”
AFPI’s complaint also contends that the Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA), Oregon’s high school interscholastic athletic body, has policies that violate Title IX by allowing students to participate in athletics based on their “gender identity,” not their biological sex. In March, OCR initiated a Title IX investigation into OSAA over its “gender identity participation” policy as well as into Portland Public Schools.
Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in educational programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance.