The case of Tennessee v. US Dept. of Education will re-examine sex discrimination and gender identity in school sports

KNOXVILLE, Tenn., Feb. 1, 2023 — Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF) filed an amicus brief on Tuesday in the case of The State of Tennessee v. United States Department of Education.

The brief argues that forcing female student-athletes to compete against males and share locker sex-specific accommodations such as showers and locker rooms violates Title IX, which prevents discrimination in education on the basis of sex.

Twenty state attorneys general, spearheaded by Tennessee, are suing the US Dept. of Education over guidance that requires schools to allow males who identify as female to participate in sports and other sex-specific activities based on their “gender identity.” Multiple female athletes have also joined the case to protect women’s sports.

The Ed Dept. guidance was issued in response to President Biden’s 2021 executive order to interpret “sex” in civil rights law as including “gender identity.” WoLF has previously submitted multiple petitions and public comments to the Ed Dept. outlining the ways in which this guidance is directly harmful to women and girls and urging the Department to protect female athletes.

WoLF’s amicus brief supports the states’ argument that the Ed Dept. violated procedural rules in issuing their guidance and that the Department’s interpretation of “sex” in Title IX blatantly disregards the text of the law. WoLF also specifically points out that the Department continues to fail to provide a clear or coherent definition of the term “gender identity,” which essentially confers special privileges to a subset of people based on their own beliefs (or claim of such).

WoLF’s brief states:

“Women’s hard-earned rights are threatened by the agency policies currently being enjoined; policies that embrace the vague concept of “gender identity” in a manner that overrides statutory and Constitutional protections that are based explicitly on “sex.” In doing so, each Defendant not only ignores its obligation but also cedes its own ability to protect women and girls from sex-based discrimination, threatening their physical safety by proclaiming that women are not permitted to exclude males from any space or activity, thus undercutting their access to public life.”

Unlike the inclusion of “sexual orientation” in civil anti-discrimination guidance, gender identity is not based on any material or biological difference in sex. Rather, as Jennifer Chavez stated in WoLF’s public comments, “the concept of gender identity purports to supersede and obfuscate the ordinary public meaning of ‘sex.’”

For legal inquiries, contact: legal@womensliberationfront.org

For media inquiries, contact: media@womensliberationfront.org

Women’s Liberation Front is a national radical feminist 501(c)(3) non-profit public charity dedicated to restoring, protecting, and advancing the rights of women and girls using legal argument, policy advocacy, and public education.