Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch issued the following statement yesterday.
Attorney General Lynn Fitch today led a 22-state coalition of Attorneys General in urging the Biden Administration to uphold Title IX protections for girls and women.
On April 13, 2023, the Department of Education proposed an overreaching, unlawful rule that strips states of their power and duty to protect the equality, privacy and safety of females by preventing biological males from competing in female sports.
In multiple comment letters to the U.S. Department of Education, Attorneys General from nearly two dozen states voiced their opposition to the proposed rule, stating that the rule 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, exceeds the agency’s authority, impermissibly preempts duly enacted state laws, injects uncertainty into student athletics and threatens the progress Title IX has ushered in for women and girls over the past 50 years.
“For decades, women have enjoyed a far fairer playing field thanks to successful, commonsense laws like Title IX," said Attorney General Lynn Fitch. "The Biden Administration’s attempts to devalue women’s unique needs and contributions will reverse decades of progress. We must continue our efforts to empower women by offering safe spaces for women to engage with one another in athletics, education, fellowship, and sometimes even in healing."
In the letter led by General 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.”
Attorneys General from Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia joined General Fitch in filing this comment letter.
Read the letter here.
General Fitch also joined letters led by Attorneys General from Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Tennessee, and Texas.
In a letter led by Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin, the Attorneys General write, “The Proposed Regulation seeks to balance gender identity and sex, but its proposal for how States do so is self-contradictory and utterly un-administrable. On the one hand, a student’s identification as transgender triggers a complex, individualized assessment of that student’s athletic performance. On the other hand, the Proposed Regulation discourages States from asking whether any student is transgender in the first place because it says coming out as transgender is ‘extremely traumatic.’ … The Department’s failure to grapple with those questions alone means this Department has not seriously considered how anyone could ever apply with the Proposed Regulation, and that alone requires that it be rejected.”
In a letter led by Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, the Attorneys General write, “For support and justification, the Proposed Rule erroneously cites A.M. v. Indianapolis Pub. Schs…. One district court’s now-vacated preliminary assessment that relies on bathroom-access precedents rather than sports participation cases cannot bear the weight the Department places on it. It was never ‘courts’ plural, and it was never final or reviewed. Indiana’s statute continues to apply in all cases and the Department’s suggestion otherwise is deceptive.”
In a letter led by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, the Attorneys General write, “It is a telling illustration that Kansas native Jim Ryun (a male track athlete and, later, a Congressman) was the first high-school athlete to run a mile in under four minutes back in 1964, when he was seventeen years old. Since then, ten other high-school boys have broken the four-minute mark in the United States alone. To this day, however, no woman of any age or any nationality has run the mile that quickly; the women’s world record hasn’t even yet reached 4:11.”
In a letter led by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, the Attorneys General write, “It makes little sense to read Title IX as rigorously policing ‘sex-related criteria’ for determining whether someone is a boy or a girl when trying out for an athletics team while the statute itself categorically allows separating locker rooms using biological sex. For nearly half a century, Title IX regulations in the Code of Federal Regulations have allowed, and sometimes required, schools to separate the two sexes in athletics and other contexts.”
In a letter led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the Attorneys General write, “[I]t is clear from the well-publicized reality of the transgender athlete phenomenon, the Department’s own language in the Proposed Rule, and the cases the Proposed Rule cites, that the burden of accommodating trans-identifying or nonbinary athletes goes primarily one way: it forces States to allow biological men to compete in women’s sports.”
36 comments:
Make sense. She's the man!
She's right in doing this, but wow how ridiculous it is for our society in 2023 to have to file lawsuits just to confirm obvious truths that were instinctively known by the generations that came before us.
Don't they have more important shit to worry about... a man is a man and a woman is a woman. That is it
Glad to see our AG taking a leading role in this!
Why are there not more women in this country speaking out on this issue to protect the rights that women fought for and earned over the last century?
Women should all be outraged and vocally opposed to this trans movement that is dismantling girl's/women's competitive sports led by a tiny fraction of our population comprised of deranged MEN.
It really does not take a rocket scientist to know the difference in a man and a woman. All through history the human race knew the difference. Now things are changing. Some people do not know the difference in a man and a woman and they demand all other people to agree with them. It is the "in" thing to do.
It was actually the women that started all of this. They demanded equal pay. That is not a bad thing as long as the woman can do the same quality of work as a man. Sadly that is not always the way things work out. Some jobs a woman can do as well as a man but there are still quite a few jobs that a woman can not do as well as a man.
Women forgot or did never know the importance some people put on some childish games. Women wanted the same pay as men when it came to playing sports. I really think the women did not think too much about what they were trying to do. Women can not compete in most sports as well as a man. That is just a fact of life. In this day and time things like that do not matter much as long as people can yell loud enough. People can march down the street yelling sexist and racist and get just about everything they want. But when it comes to some grown ups playing a child's game their yells do not mean anything.
It is going to be a big job deciding what is right and what is wrong. Women want the same thing that men want but are just not able to do the work needed. Men want to win in a child's game and some will even change themselves into women to be a winner.
This is going to be some problem. We expect our leaders to make decisions that are the best for all of us but many of them do not know the difference in a man and a woman.
Have any of you guys actually taken a genetics class? Not so cut and dry.
Have any of you guys actually taken a genetics class? Not so cut and dry.
Yes, and No, it really is that cut and dry. People who deny the existence of biological sex are biology deniers.
I see Mississippi is staying on the wrong side of History yet again.
This hasn’t been an issue in Thailand, the Philippines, Tahiti, France, Germany, or any of the nations with a significant transplant population since the last century.
But it’s got to be an issue to hypocritical “conservatives” who claim to hate government interference in private lives. Unless it is rights for minorities, then they are against it.
I know these are useless letters, but it's funny to me how (Indiana AG) Todd Rokita's version of the letter has Lynn's signature appearing on the second page of signatures.
I hear Lynn has a tough time doing any real work (or showing up to the office for that matter), so I wonder who's leading whom in this frivolous letter-writing campaign?
If the military and other government agencies allow men to turn into women, why can’t someone arbitrarily pick what age they want to be?
If they’re going to ignore the “science “ of gender, then they can ignore age.
Let’s say I’m 50 years old but the military won’t accept anyone over 35. Why can’t I then “identify” as a 30 year old and be accepted? I’m probably in better physical shape than a lot of lard ass 30 year olds.
Sometimes you have to create an absurdity to highlight another absurdity.
I used to be a Moderate Conservative.
I guess I still am. I'm socially liberal-leaning in general.
But the knee "jerks" like 11:24 have made me reconsider. The liberal lunatics will never be satisfied. I think the attacks on minority rights is so over blown now.
The sane ones of us, including Bi, Gays, Lesbians all seem pretty content and equal.
Its the remaining insane posse that will never be satisfied still crowing about the abuse.
Just ignore them and protect decent citizens.
11:24
F*&K off!!! I do not want a dude in the girl's bathroom. And yes, as crazy as that sounds, it is happening. I thought it would never be an issue, but apparently common sense be damned. These f'ing fruit loops on the left are screwing the world up for everyone.
Dudes DO NOT belong in girls' sports or their bathroom. And "their" is being used to reference women, girls or the human beings with the ability to have children. you know, the ones that have uteruses and all the plumbing that came naturally, you know from another women!
I took genetics in college. Actually it is quite easy. Gender is not a social construct. It is a biological fact.
11:16 AM, yes, I have taken genetics courses. There are very rare cases in which trained medical professionals can't tell exactly what sex somebody is without karyotyping. These are just that-rare. Very rare. Most doctors go an entire career and never see such a person. I've never seen one in 20+ years of practice. Therefore, it makes no sense to turn the whole normal world upside down to accomodate such rare cases of genetic anomalies.
Stop making all of us change to suit a very few people.
I find that the only thing this AG admin does is intervene in national political issues. This administration has a heavy duty political agenda that they emphasize completely over relevant law enforcement issues, such as crime etc.
Bringing back nightmares of Dr. Cox
All you old farmer-types need to get with the times. Gender identification is only the beginning. Tattoos and cigarettes for six-year-olds, says I!
And, to think that this came out while we were celebrating Birthing Person's Day.
Not that this does not need to be stopped in its tracks, but the General has, once again, gotten involved in nothing but 'low hanging fruit'.
Her agency is charged with the responsibility to provide on site counsel to each agency...and to represent the state in lawsuits against the state and those pressed forward by the state.
But, she is incompetent and knows full well the way to reelection is to please and rally the skirts. She proved that four years ago.
1:22 - I had never heard of a 'genetics course' when I was in undergraduate or graduate school and doubt you did either.
Sex categorizes female or male but there is variation in the biological attributes that comprise sex and how those attributes are expressed. Sometimes there is an anomaly in the distinguishing categoristics, but that's a discussion for another day.
Gender refers to the socially (<notice that word?) constructed roles, behaviors, expressions and identities of girls, women, boys, men, and gender diverse people. (Never use the word when you're defining it).
I think you can safely interpret that to mean gender is a man-made myth while sex is a biological reality that has lasted for a thousand or more years.
The man-made myth of gender enables one to choose whether it is a red-worm, a unicorn, a quarter left by the tooth fairy, a person with testicles who can crank out a baby or a gas pump.
You must not have noticed much in college. Mississippi College and Millsaps both had courses in genetics. Mendelian genetics, DNA and RNA study, and good ole The Double Helix. Drosophila experiments anyone? Nothing like segregating fruit flies at 2 AM when they are on their breeding cycles.
6:53 - As always, there's no way to know who you are addressing with your little diatribes.
Do you really lend credence to whatever Mississippi College and Millsaps offered in some genetics class?
I see you've been Googling and we're now up to 'fruit flies'. Keep on Truckin'...
@11:24, intervening to protect women in sports and in private areas for women is not interfering in the private sphere or anyone’s private life. Unless you think Title IX prohibiting discrimination against women is an interference in the private sphere, seeking to protect women against discrimination in favor of biological males would seem to be matter of public interest and a matter of public concern. Adults who want surgeries to modify their bodies may have a private interest in doing so. That is not the issue. The public, however, has an interest in protecting the rights of women. Biden’s proposals are a slap in women and will create unfairness in women’s sports and allow the invasion of women only spaces by biological, males, including fully intact males based solely on an expressed preference of a male. If a male wants to identify as a woman, he certainly may do so. He doesn’t have a right to force others to agree.
11:16 - It was as easy to learn as was my ABCs.
Basic genetics
XX or XY
The 0.00000000000023% that somehow get their genetics screwed up that might have both, ok. But put that in perspective with the population and it is no different than the many other mutations (and I don't mean the term derogatoraly) that can happen through the human reproductive process.
5:23 wrote many words that proved little more than he is most ignorant. Genetics courses were required by many majors when I was in college.
Kingfish, despite the goofiness of 5:23, your post brought back memories. I knew a girl who took genetics and gathered the Drosophila and food medium from her classmates in the Genetics lab. She then got access to a prof's office after he had given her a rough time. She unscrewed the HVAC vent in his office. She stuffed the Drosophila populations and food medium behind the HVAC vent. The prof had Drosophila buzzing around his head for a very long time.
I wish I had thought of that when I took Genetics.
5:23 Genesis 5:2
Can Lynn get the Olympics to change their policy. I'm sure she would welcome 7-10 days in Switzerland.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with a 7 year old girl seeing a 55 year old man dressed like a cheap hooker peeing in the ladies room at Chick-fil-A!
If you think otherwise then you are a bigot!
Evil must be confronted.
I fully support individual choice. But true gender matter in sports. Cannot ignore the differences in strength and speed. I don’t care where anyone pees, but sports must remain true gender specific.
No doubt @5:23 PM identified as a gas pump yesterday and maybe will identify as a wind bag today. Cheers.
I am a biological woman. This madness that a transgender can compete in women’s sports must stop. It’s not fair to the women who compete against them biologically. I never thought in my wildest dreams that we would be having this discussion 10 years but yet here we are. As far as I am concerned, the people that are in favor of this as well for the kid gender reassignment surgeries are insane.
Biological women are outdated. As soon as we have perfect artificial wombs, you will be completely irrelevant.
Decades of murdering your young while riding the and voting this nation into the shithole will be long past.
You will be left with two options:
The handmaid’s tale or the extinction of your gender.
It's true. Gender is not a biological concept. Gender-identity is man-made hoodoo, nothing else.
Sex is limited to male and female. That's it. You're either male or female. Gender, if you care to consider it, consists of limitless choices, fully embracing the imaginary science of hoodoo.
Hardly any of our grandparents ever heard of, much less TOOK a genetics course, and I'm sure all of them understand these realities.
Fitch has never had an original thought.
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