Eighteen states are still dodging Trump’s executive order that protects women by keeping biological boys out of girls’ sports, Defending Education’s (DE) compliance tracker shows.
The conservative organization’s tracker assessed whether the 50 states are complying with “Title IX regarding single-sex spaces and single-sex interscholastic athletics” in line with President Donald Trump’s executive order “defending women from gender ideology extremism.” Eighteen states were found to be openly defiant of the order that “protect[s] all-female athletic opportunities and all-female locker rooms” based on “public statements made by state officials or state policies,” the tracker says.
The Trump administration has sued two of the 18 states, California and Maine, for forcing girls to tussle and compete with boys in girls’ sports and is investigating the state of Minnesota. Yet it appears that 15 other states have thus far avoided enforcement measures from the administration.
“The fact that 32 states are now compliant with Title IX shows that all we needed was an administration that used its authority to enforce federal law,” Casey Ryan, investigative reporter for Defending Education, said in a statement.
After Trump signed an executive order in January recognizing biological sex and barring men from playing in women’s sports, Georgia, Indiana, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin soon after adopted policies or passed legislation requiring that men not be allowed to compete in women’s sports.
California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington are the remaining 18 states that still enforce radical gender ideology instead of Trump’s executive order, according to DE’s tracker.
The Department of Education found California in violation of Title IX on June 25, “but the [state] entities have refused to comply with federal civil rights law in order to ensure the state can harm as many women as possible,” The Federalist’s Breccan Thies reported on Wednesday.
California’s Department of Education Superintendent Tony Thurmond published a statement on June 3 telling school administrators to keep allowing students to play on sports teams that mirror their “gender identity.”
After the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Maine for insisting that men should play women’s sports, Maine’s Attorney General Aaron Frey said there are “no concerns of safety” when it comes to females competing against males (and in some cases being seriously injured), lying to boys by telling them they are girls, and making women strip naked in front of men.
The “trans refuge” state, also known as Minnesota, also made it clear that it fully supports allowing gender dysphoria to rule sports. “Female sports team participation in Minnesota is not restricted to the female sex,” the Minnesota House of Representatives said. “Nor will it be anytime soon.”
The Minnesota Department of Education and the Minnesota State High School League are currently under investigation to see whether they are discriminating against females by letting boys who claim to be girls steal opportunities from actual girls, the Department of Human Health and Services said in a June 26 press release. The high school league continues to allow students to play according to their supposed “gender identity,” the tracker shows.
The Illinois High School Association (IHSA), which says it does not receive federal or state funds, also made a statement in April upholding its policy of letting boys pretend to be girls in sporting events.
Maryland also issued a statement in March making clear that “opportunities” will “remain accessible” for boys, so girls will be put in more physical harm while playing sports, saying Maryland has “always been a state that values fairness, dignity, and inclusion.”
The statement also said Trump has “launched an all-out assault” on boys who pretend to be girls, calling for “[l]eaders in the public and private sectors at all levels … to make full-throated declarations that transgender, nonbinary, and intersex youth, adults, and families will be protected and supported in Maryland.”
According to DE’s tracker, New Jersey has not made a change to the state’s rule that students can play sports according to the individual’s so-called “gender identity.” The New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association (NJSIAA), the governing body for high school sports in New Jersey, said it hasn’t had any complaints about boys playing on girls’ teams, so the state is not going to abide by Trump’s order.
Washington’s Superintendent Chris Reykdal also published a statement in February saying Trump’s order to protect women is “disregarding the rule of law.”
Oregon and Vermont allow students to choose their “preferred gender identity” when it comes to playing on a sports team. New York and Rhode Island’s attorneys general and education commissioners published statements in February telling schools to ignore the president’s order to protect girls.
“While the majority of states are compliant with Title IX, there are still 18 states, including the District of Columbia, that have chosen noncompliance as their hill to die on,” Kendall Tietz, investigative reporter for Defending Education, said in a statement.
“While young female athletes and students are forced to share single-sex spaces with biological males, leaders in states like California and Maine continue to play politics at the expense of women’s rights,” Tietz said. “These are not optional guidelines; they are legal obligations designed to protect students from sex-based discrimination, including sexual harassment and assault.”
Abigail Nichols is a correspondent for The Federalist. She was previously the opinion editor for the University of South Florida’s student newspaper, The Oracle. She is now working as the business manager at the University of North Florida’s student-run media outlet, Spinnaker Media, while obtaining a Master’s Degree in Social work.
