EXCLUSIVE: The U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday the creation of a Title IX special investigations team in conjunction with the Department of Education. The new initiative aims at addressing an “increasing volume” of Title IX cases, amid a flury of controversial incidents involving trans athletes in girls’ and women’s sports in recent years.
The DOJ provided an exclusive statement to Fox News Digital citing previous policies under the Joe Biden administration that enabled trans inclusion in women’s and girls’ sports for the situation the new investigations team will look to address.
“Women across America have spent the last four years disenfranchised by the Biden administration that allowed men to compete in girls’ sports – jeopardizing their safety, stealing their scholarships and stripping them of hard-earned awards,” the statement read.
“This Task Force was created with the sole mission of going after bad actors who continue to endanger young women with woke gender ideology. It will leverage every legal resource available to ensure states and organizations follow Title IX to protect women’s civil rights and competitive sports.”
The Biden administration took steps starting on day one of the former president’s term to enable trans inclusion in women’s and girls’ sports.
On Biden’s inauguration day in January 2021, Biden signed an executive order on “Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation.”
The order included a section that said, “Children should be able to learn without worrying about whether they will be denied access to the restroom, the locker room, or school sports.”
In March 2023, Democrats advocated for a transgender bill of rights, proposing a resolution “recognizing that it is the duty of the Federal Government to develop and implement a Transgender Bill of Rights.” The resolution specifically called for federal law to ensure that biological men can “participate in sports on teams and in programs that best align with their gender identity; [and] use school facilities that best align with their gender identity.”
In April 2023, Biden’s Department of Education proposed a rule change that would have punished schools for preventing trans athletes from competing in women’s sports.
The proposition was titled “Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Sex in Education Programs or Activities Receiving Federal Financial Assistance: Sex-Related Eligibility Criteria for Male and Female Athletic Teams.”
The rule would have outlawed individual states from banning participation in single-sex sports by gender identity rather than just sex. There are 23 states in the U.S. that have legislation in place to restrict trans athletes from competing as females in public school sports.
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In April 2024, Biden issued a sweeping Title IX rewrite that issued a ban on “sex” discrimination in schools based on gender identity, sexual orientation and “pregnancy or related conditions.” The rule took effect on Aug. 1, and for the first time, the law stated that discrimination based on sex includes conduct related to a person’s gender identity.
It led to more than two dozen attorneys general suing over the rule, arguing it would conflict with some of their state laws that block transgender students from participating in women’s sports.
The Supreme Court struck down an emergency request by Biden to enforce the rewrite in states that defied the rewrite in August.
When the election came around in Novemeber, Biden’s record on the issue may have backfired on his party because it lost the White House, Senate and House of Representatives.
A national exit poll conducted by the Concerned Women for America legislative action committee found that 70% of moderate voters saw the issue of “Donald Trump’s opposition to transgender boys and men playing girls’ and women’s sports and of transgender boys and men using girls’ and women’s bathrooms” as important to them.
Additionally, 6% said it was the most important issue of all, while 44% said it was “very important.”
After President Donald Trump returned to office, he signed an executive order banning trans athletes in women’s and girls sports on February 5. However, many Democrat-led states have refused to comply with the order despite most Democrats being opposed to trans inclusion.
A recent New York Times/Ipsos survey found that the vast majority of Americans, including a majority of Democrats, don’t think transgender athletes should be permitted to compete in women’s sports. Of the 2,128 people who participated, 79% said that biological males who identify as women should not be allowed to participate in women’s sports.
Of the 1,025 people who identified as Democrats or leaning Democrat, 67% said that transgender athletes should not be allowed to compete with women.
Now, the DOE and DOJ are taking initiative to ensure that Trump’s agenda to protect girls’ and women’s athletes is carried out, and that those who oppose it face consequences.
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