Submitted by Lorelei O’Haga, Greenwich Resident
This year, Title IX celebrates 50 years as a groundbreaking federal gender equity law widely celebrated as a transformational piece of civil rights legislation dedicated to ensuring equal access to education and athletics. Through the Office of Civil Rights, there are vigorous efforts to protect women and girls from sexual assault and harassment on school campuses, and to promote better representation in math and sciences, among broad goals. Title IX is most famous for its impact on women’s sports. “Since 1972, thanks to increased funding and institutional opportunities, there has been a 545% increase in the percentage of women playing college sports and a 990% increase in the percentage of women playing high school sport.” Women’s Sports Foundation, founded by Billie Jean King.
The four Republican members of the BOE (Karen Kowalksi, Joe Kelly, Cody Kittle and Michael Joseph Mercanti-Anthony) voted against the adoption of Title IX policy for Greenwich students on January 20, 2022 against advice of outside legal counsel, and in opposition to law.
Beyond the danger posed by elected representatives who do not follow laws, the town risks losing federal funding for schools, and could be excluded from interscholastic sports. The CT State Board of Education is now on alert and the BOE must hold another vote.
The reasons given for the NO vote related to Title IX inclusion of trans women and girls in sports. Trans women in sports is not a major public concern. This is not a local or grassroots effort. This is a well-funded, coordinated initiative by right-wing organizations mass producing anti-equity bills across the country. As of today, more anti-trans bills have been brought by the Republican Party than ever before. A few years ago, the same folks were fundraising and organizing to prohibit same-sex marriage, but the American public moved on and Marriage Equality became the law, so the Republican Party has to find new wedge issues.
Transphobia bills haven’t been successful as most people don’t care much about which bathrooms people use, so the Republican party has been searching for ways to attack trans people, particularly trans youth, in ways that are more relatable to moderate suburban voters.
Anti-trans sports legislation, rooted in anti-blackness, has captured the interest of some white parents because they feel connected to their own kids’ sports, and have latched on to the idea that the existence of trans people in sports might lead to the loss of scholarships for their own, however remote. There is little awareness of this issue, and we undoubtedly run into preconceived notions of gender and sex. Few people are invested in understanding the trans experience, or the dehumanizing effect of turning their existence into a problem about sports scholarships.
We must understand the context behind these campaigns of manufactured outrage appearing in our BOE meetings over the past year: anti-CRT, anti-mask, book banning and transphobia. They are all connected and being driven by an ideology that is anti-democratic and anti-equality – there are monied interests like the Heritage Foundation, DeVos Family, Family Research Council, National Christian Council, Alliance for Defending Freedom, Council on National Policy– which ultimately mean to undermine democracy and civil rights for women, people of color, the disabled, and the LGBTQ community. The templates and talking points are feeding social media, newsletters, and state and local legislation, as well as protests and parent advocacy. It helps explains why BOE Vice-Chair Karen Kowalski, herself and her kids beneficiaries of doors opened by Title IX, would stand in opposition to basic standards of non-discrimination for all students today.
Everyone benefits from Title IX and there’s still much more to do. The public commentary from the BOE meeting in January is a glaring reminder of why Title IX was written in 1972; why it became mandatory in 1978; and why we won’t take NO for an answer
Lorelei O’Hagan, Greenwich Resident