On the 50th anniversary of Title IX being passed, some are speaking out against President Joe Biden’s new proposals to expand the interpretation of civil rights law.
Title IX says, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
This week, the Biden administration announced a proposal to expand the definition of the law to include banning discrimination based on “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.”
Thursday, U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) reacted to Biden’s plans on Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends” and said he was working to stop the proposed changes.
“It made it a level playing field for everybody,” said Tuberville, “and it has been a huge success. I coached women’s basketball back when I first started in high school coaching, and I saw the emergence of it right off the bat.”
The former Auburn coach argued that Biden’s proposed changes would do nothing but hurt college athletics in this country.
“But now, Joe Biden is getting ready to make proposals that’s going to bring it to its knees,” he said.
Tuberville argued that allowing transgender athletes to compete in women’s sports had already limited opportunities for college women.
“In the last few years, transgender boys have won 22 championships against girls,” he explained. “That’s wrong. It’s wrong. We’ve got to get away from that. We’ve got to fight back on it. We’ve got some Democrats that are hiding from this issue because this is an election year. We’ve got to stop it.”
The senator also made the point that Title IX had helped many women beyond just college athletics.
“Title IX open up leadership skills and being able to play and learn how to win and lose for women for the last 50 years,” he said, “and look, you’ve got senators up here that they will tell you that women’s sports helped them become a senator. It helped them to come out of their shell, understand how to work with other people, and how to accept the hard training.”
Tuberville said he could not understand why Biden would want to hurt something that had been very positive for women across the country.
“It’s been a great success,” he argued, “and they’re going to screw this up — you watch this. They’ve screwed everything else; they might as well screw this up, but we’re going to fight it.”
