The Fight to Defend Women's Sports is Not Over—But We're Winning | Opinion

This week, the Department of Education announced a new civil rights investigation on behalf of young women from Portland Public Schools who are being forced to compete against a man in the 200-meter and 400-meter dash. The investigation began with a student complaint that policies allowing male track and fielder Ada Gallagher to compete in girls' events deny equal opportunity based on sex to Portland Interscholastic League girls. Gallagher, a 155-pound sprinter who formerly competed in men's categories, has been winning women's events and setting season records.

The Department of Education is moving quickly and decisively to restore and protect female-only sports and spaces in educational institutions. Most recently, we found the Maine Department of Education in violation of Title IX for forcing girls to compete against boys and depriving girls of female-only locker rooms. In every state, school district, championship, and tournament we are defending the right of girls and women to compete on a fair playing field.

In the past, the Department of Education, where I serve as deputy general counsel, has moved slowly—often taking years to investigate and rarely terminating funds over civil rights violations. On January 20, 2025, the kid gloves came off.

Under the Trump administration and Education Secretary Linda McMahon's leadership, the Department of Education is conducting expedited investigations of recalcitrant states and schools for discriminating based on sex. We are testing the resolve of institutions to continue promoting gender ideology when faced with the steep cost of losing federal funding.

This administration is uncompromising on Title IX because it's the common sense, right thing to do. It's also a mandate from the American public. A New York Times/Ipsos poll from earlier this year indicated that 79 percent of Americans oppose males competing in women's sports. Even California Governor Gavin Newsom, one of the furthest-left Democrat politicians in the country, recently called it "deeply unfair."

This is as close to unanimous agreement that present-day Americans get. Americans see the reality that we play sports with our bodies, not our identities. It isn't even logically possible for men to play in women's sports—letting men participate just converts women's sports into coed sports. The palpable unfairness and physical risks of forcing women into coed competition have been burned into Americans' psyches via images of male athletes smashing women's records in swimming, or women's faces in volleyball.

The Department of Education is calling foul on these abuses of female athletes, and has urged major athletic associations to do the same—but not all have changed the guidance they provide their members. The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS), for example, is refusing to provide secondary schools with the leadership on health and safety that they promise in their mission statement. We asked them to communicate correct Title IX policy to their members around the country, and help us keep men out of women's sports. But they have refused to do so.

NFHS membership comprises the high school sports associations of every state across the country. When the Biden administration changed Title IX enforcement to allow men to compete with women, NFHS announced that change to great fanfare and provided its members with explicit instructions on complying with the policy. When the Trump administration reverted to the original purpose of Title IX, NFHS was silent—betraying the very students it's supposed to serve.

If NFHS chooses to ignore the Department's request to provide accurate Title IX guidance to their members, all they succeed in doing is making their guidance irrelevant and leaving the schools in NFHS member associations open to Department investigations.

The Department of Education will continue to enforce Title IX and investigate institutions that force women to compete with men whether in middle school, high school, or collegiate sports. This is both a fairness and a safety issue. Men and boys have physical advantages in strength, speed, and endurance that don't disappear with claims of one's gender identity, or use of puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones. Equally important is the safety and privacy that female athletes deserve in their own locker rooms and bathrooms.

History will not look kindly on those who let half a century of Title IX progress regress into men dominating and injuring women in sports. The battle to safeguard women's sports has reached a pivotal moment. This administration will force institutions to choose between Title IX compliance or federal funds—and we will not be hindered by organizations who want to pretend federal anti-discrimination law doesn't exist. Accountability for forcing female athletes into unfair and dangerous coed competition will be swift and decisive. Victory for female athletes, who have suffered enough under the illusions of gender ideology, is growing closer.

Candice Jackson is deputy general counsel at the U.S. Department of Education.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.