- Top UN expert on violence against women and girls publishes strong warning to the U.S. government regarding proposed Title IX rule change, which would require schools to permit males to compete in female-only sports
- Letter flags dangers of compelling males and females to share locker rooms and other intimate spaces
- Communication – now published in full – sent to U.S. government in response to concerns raised by human rights groups, including ADF International
GENEVA (20 February 2024) – The United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem, has urged the Biden administration to protect female athletes from being forced to compete with males who identify as female.
In a now-public letter, initially sent privately to the U.S. government in December, the UN expert raises concerns regarding the Biden administration’s proposed amendments to Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972. The changes would undermine safety and fairness in women’s and girls’ sports by compelling schools to allow male athletes identifying as female to participate on female-only sports teams, in addition to the sharing of intimate spaces such as locker rooms and restrooms.
Alsalem warns this change would result in “unfair treatment and unlawful and extreme forms of discrimination against most women and girls on the basis of female sex” and “undermine the access of women and girls in sports to equal opportunity as well as undermine their overall participation in society and public life.”
Furthermore, she detailed that the forced erasure of female-only facilities could result in “loss of privacy, an increased risk of physical injury, heightened exposure to sexual harassment and voyeurism, as well as a more frequent and accumulated psychological distress due to the loss of privacy and fair and equal sporting and academic opportunities.”
The U.S. government failed to respond to the Special Rapporteur’s communication within the requested time period of 60 days. The letter has now been published on the website of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
International concern for fairness for women
The Special Rapporteur referred to the reports of concerned athletes and human rights organisations that the proposed changes would “potentially upend decades of advances in athletic opportunities for women and girls by opening women’s sports teams to males with intrinsic biological advantages.”
Giorgio Mazzoli, Director of United Nations Advocacy for ADF International, said:
“We welcome and endorse the UN Special Rapporteur’s robust defense of women and girls’ sex-based protections in sport. Female athletes have a right to equal opportunity, privacy, and safety in the pursuit of sporting achievements, and related academic opportunities. The proposed Title IX changes not only would compromise the integrity and fairness of female sports; they also would place the U.S. in direct violation of its international human rights obligations.”
Fair access for females: on the pitch and in academia
Among the concerns raised by the Special Rapporteur was access for competitive female athletes to scholarship opportunities at US universities. “Denial of the opportunity to compete fairly causes extreme psychological distress to women who know they do not have a chance to compete and may lose well-deserved scholarships and other educational and economic opportunities,” wrote Asaleem.
In Connecticut, four female college athletes represented by Alliance Defending Freedom have brought a lawsuit against Connecticut’s statewide athletic association because they were deprived of honors and opportunities at elite track-and-field levels by male athletes permitted to compete against them. Read more here.
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The UN expert’s letter also highlighted the physical dangers at play with admitting males into women’s sports.
“Moreover, allowing athletes born male to, for example, box, wrestle, pin, shove, or strike at female athletes on a playing field, regardless of the power differences based on sex, is likely to lead to the toleration of such behaviour off the pitch,” she warned.
Additionally, the expert flagged that “compelling women and girls to share restrooms, locker rooms and intimate spaces with males, would very likely lead to feelings of anxiety, stress, humiliation, and embarrassment, resulting in women and girls choosing to avoid these facilities altogether. It would also increase the risk of sexual harassment, voyeurism, and physical and sexual attacks in unisex locker rooms.”
A groundbreaking impact on female participation
Title IX was passed as part of the Education Amendments Act of 1972 and was originally intended to eliminate obstacles that many women faced in education, especially in higher education. The main provision of Title IX states, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
Before Title IX was passed, male athletes vastly outnumbered female athletes. According to the Women’s Sports Foundation, in 1972, boys outnumbered girls 3.66 million to 300,000 (more than a 12:1 ratio) in American high school sports. Fifty years later, that ratio has shrunk to about 4:3 (4.5 million boys to 3.4 million girls).
Similar changes can be seen in US collegiate athletics. In 1972, male athletes outnumbered female athletes 170,000 to 30,000 (almost a 6:1 ratio). Now, that gap has shrunk to just under 4:3 (275,000 men to 215,000 women).
The Biden administration has sought to redefine “sex discrimination” in Title IX, although such a change is not authorized by Title IX’s text or United States Supreme Court precedent.
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