In another example of President Donald Trump’s weaponization of the Department of Education (DOE), the DOE’s Office of General Counsel is demanding that transgender high school and college athletes be retroactively stripped of their records, titles, and awards. The demand follows Trump’s executive order seeking to ban trans female athletes from all school sports.

The letter from the DOE addressed to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), states, “We cannot undo the damage inflicted by years of policies and practices that have denied the material reality of sex and conflated that immutable characteristic with a subjective, fluid concept of ‘identity’ by prospectively returning to objective, factual sex classifications in athletics.”

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NCAA bans trans women from sports without even consulting its own doctors
Critics of the ban say it does nothing to actually protect women’s sports.

“But we can recognize the harms done and injustices committed by such misguided policies and reversing their effects will restore a genuine commitment to girls’ and women’s equality of opportunity in athletic competition across the United States,” the letter says.

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With that, the department demanded the two sports organizations “restore to female athletes all records, titles, awards, and recognitions wrongfully credited to male athletes.”

The letter, obtained in a “scoop” by the rightwing administration mouthpiece The Daily Caller, also called on the NCAA to adopt “clear, fact-based language” that parrots Trump’s Day One “gender ideology” executive order “restoring biological truth” and recognizing only two “immutable” sexes, male and female.

In a DOE press release accompanying the letter, anti-trans activist and former college swimmer Riley Gaines said, “Restoring stolen athletic accolades to their rightful owners is a crucial step towards reinstating accountability, integrity, and common sense — one that I wholeheartedly support.”

Gaines tied for fifth place with transgender athlete Lia Thomas in the women’s 200-meter NCAA championships in 2022. Gaines would be the sole 5th-place finisher if the NCAA caves to Trump’s demand to revise college records.

The NCAA has already bowed to the administration’s “gender ideology” dictate. Last week, the governing body for college sports voted to ban all transgender women from competing in women’s college sports.

The DOE’s letter argued the administration’s latest assault on transgender athletes is “entirely consistent” with the NCAA’s new policy.

NCAA President Charlie Baker, one of the recipients of the letter, told a Senate committee in December that he is aware of fewer than 10 transgender athletes among more than 500,000 student-athletes who compete in NCAA championship sports.

Reporting by the Associated Press in 2021 revealed that dozens of lawmakers who sponsored legislation to restrict trans athletes’ participation in school sports couldn’t cite a single example in their own state where trans athletes had caused problems. 

Since then, more than half of U.S. states have imposed bans on transgender students in school sports.

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