Lincoln, NE—Attorney General Hilgers joined nearly two dozen attorneys general in urging the Biden Administration to uphold Title IX protections for women and girls.
On April 13, 2023, the Department of Education proposed an overreaching, unlawful rule that threatens nearly half a century of progress and jeopardizes the equality, privacy, and safety of women by paving the way for many more biological males to start competing in women and girls’ sports at all levels.
In a series of comment letters to the U.S. Department of Education, a coalition of attorneys general voiced their opposition to the proposed rule, stating that it disregards five decades of evidence showing the benefits of applying the traditional definition of biological sex in sports. The attorneys general argue that it ignores basic considerations of privacy and dignity, fails to meet the Department’s duty to analyze costs and benefits, and injects uncertainty into student athletics, and threatens the progress Title IX has ushered in for women and girls over the past 50 years.
“Since Title IX was first passed into law, our country has made enormous progress in expanding opportunities for women, both in the classroom and on courts and ballfields across America,” said AG Hilgers,” The Biden Administration wants to take us backwards with a rule that ignores science, the text and history of the law, and common sense.”
In a letter led by Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch, the attorneys general write, “Engrafting the deliberately vague, undefined, and malleable concept of gender identity onto Title IX – and subjecting schools to an extreme form of intermediate scrutiny if they try to continue to uphold Title IX’s aims – will do a great disservice to our Nation’s student athletes. Instead of advancing the mission that Title IX started more than 50 years ago, the proposed rule would take a large leap toward erasing many women and girls from competitive sports.”
“We stand with our sister states asking the Administration to withdraw this rule and protect the tremendous gains that Title IX has helped women achieve,” stated AG Hilgers.
