Kansas AG Kobach leads letter criticizing proposed Biden rule blocking trans sports bans
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach is asking the federal government not to enact a rule requiring schools to allow transgender athletes to participate in girls and women’s sports, regardless of the laws in their state.
In a letter to the U.S. Department of Education, Kobach argued that the proposed rule would harm female athletes by forcing them to compete with someone who was assigned male at birth. The Kobach-led letter was also signed by 14 other Republican attorneys general.
The attorneys general argue that Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in educational programs receiving federal funding, is meant to provide equal opportunity for male and female athletes and does not take gender identity into consideration.
The Department of Education announced the proposed rules last month, a day after Kansas lawmakers passed a law banning transgender athletes from women’s sports over Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto. The department could withhold Title IX-related funding from schools that do not comply.
“Women have made tremendous gains in the last 50 years due in part to the opportunities provided by Title IX -- the same Title IX that the Biden administration wants to use to destroy women’s sports and therefore women’s opportunities,” Kobach said in a press release. “The Biden administration is about to run into hard reality if it attempts to revoke Title IX funding from Kansas schools. We will sue.”
Kansas is one of 21 states that has banned transgender athletes from women’s sports, according to the Movement Advancement Project, which tracks LGBTQ rights nationwide. The U.S. Supreme Court last month refused to intervene to enforce West Virginia’s law after a lower court blocked it.
Thomas Alonzo, chair of LGBTQ rights group Equality Kansas, said he didn’t expect Kobach’s effort to succeed.
“The administration is especially determined now to make sure these protections go through,” Alonzo said. “This is just another incredible push to demonize people and marginalize people and they’ve already been marginalized a lot.”
