The Faculty District of Philadelphia plans to defy President Donald Trump’s govt order by permitting males to proceed competing in ladies’s sports activities regardless of the state’s governing physique for highschool and center college athletics altering its insurance policies to adjust to the directive.
In a Thursday assertion offered to The Christian Submit, the district vowed it should uphold Board Coverage 252, which handed in 2016 and permits trans-identifying or “gender nonconforming” college students to take part in intramural sports activities “in a way in keeping with their gender identification.”
The coverage leaves the problem of participation in interscholastic aggressive sports activities groups to be resolved on “a case-by-case foundation.”
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“The Faculty District of Philadelphia strives to make sure security, fairness and justice for all college students no matter gender identification or gender expression in order that they’ll think about and understand any future they need,” a spokesperson for the district informed CP. “The District will proceed to align its practices to help its LGBTQ+ college students in accordance with Board Coverage 252 for transgender and gender non-conforming college students.”
The Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Affiliation board revised its coverage final week to adjust to Trump’s Feb. 5 govt order, “Retaining Males Out of Ladies’s Sports activities.”
The previous coverage deferred to high school principals to find out an athlete’s “gender” when “questioned or unsure,” however one of many revisions below the brand new coverage included the substitute of the phrase “gender” with “intercourse.”
One other addition is a brand new line that states, “In accordance with the Presidential Government Order 14201 entitled ‘Retaining Males Out of Ladies’s Sports activities,’ dated February 5, 2025, faculties are required to seek the advice of with their college solicitors relative to compliance with the Order.”
Trump’s govt order decried the observe of permitting males to compete in ladies’s sports activities as “demeaning, unfair, and harmful to ladies and women.”
The order additionally directed govt businesses to take “all applicable motion to guard all-female athletic alternatives,” promising to withdraw federal funding from academic establishments that deprive ladies and women of truthful athletic alternatives.
“Furthermore, below Title IX of the Schooling Amendments Act of 1972 (Title IX), academic establishments receiving Federal funds can not deny ladies an equal alternative to take part in sports activities,” the order said. “As some Federal courts have acknowledged, ‘ignoring elementary organic truths between the 2 sexes deprives ladies and women of significant entry to academic services.'”
The U.S. Division of Schooling’s Workplace for Civil Rights is investigating a Maine college district and the state’s Division of Schooling for refusal to adjust to Trump’s order.
In a letter final week, the federal schooling division knowledgeable MDOE that permitting males to compete in women’ sports activities is taken into account a violation of federal antidiscrimination legislation. The letter additionally named Maine Faculty Administrative District #51 as one other topic of its investigation.
The district obtained media consideration after Republican state Rep. Laurel Libby shared a photograph on social media of a male Greely Excessive Faculty pupil competing in a women’ pole-vaulting state championship.
Final yr, the male pupil tied for fifth place when he competed within the boys’ Class B pole vault, however he ended up profitable the lady’s pole-vaulting state championship in Maine this yr.
“Maine would have you ever imagine that it has no alternative in the way it treats ladies and women in athletics — that’s, that it should observe its state legal guidelines and permit male athletes to compete in opposition to ladies and women,” Craig Trainor, performing assistant secretary for civil rights, stated in an announcement final week.
“Let me be clear: If Maine desires to proceed to obtain federal funds from the Schooling Division, it has to observe Title IX,” Trainor added.
“If it desires to forgo federal funds and proceed to trample the rights of its younger feminine athletes, that, too, is its alternative. OCR will do every little thing in its energy to make sure taxpayers are usually not funding blatant civil rights violators.”
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Submit. She will be reached at: samantha.kamman@christianpost.com. Comply with her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
