Dept. of Education and Dept. of Justice launch ‘staggering volume’ of probes into trans athletes
The Administration is ramping up its push to force trans women from female sports, now with a joint team between two Departments.
April 11, 2025, 7:00 am PDT
The White House has announced the formation of a special investigative division — a joint effort of the U.S. Department of Education and the Department of Justice — to deal with what they termed violations of Title IX, in an attempt to uphold further attempts to discriminate against trans athletes in schools.
According to an official statement, the “Title IX Special Investigations Team” is designed to “ensure timely, consistent resolutions to protect students, and especially female athletes, from the pernicious effects of gender ideology in school programs and activities.”
The timing of this proposed effort is interesting, given the President’s March 20 executive order calling for the end of the Department of Education. It also comes amid growing conflict between the anti-trans stance of the White House and Republicans, and Democratic-run states that uphold codified protections for trans people, including allowing trans youth to play on school sports teams corresponding with the gender as which they identify.
One flashpoint has been in Maine, stemming back to the exchange of words between the current President and Maine Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat. The Presidential Executive Order banning transgender women and girls from competing in collegiate and scholastic female sports conflict with Maine state human rights laws, which Mills defiantly says she will uphold, ignoring the Administration’s decree.
Maine has been the target of a DoE and a freeze on Department of Agriculture funds to the University of Maine in response to Mills, and to a transgender girl, Zoe Hutchins, in the state winning a high school state indoor track title in February.
The University of Pennsylvania was also the target of an investigation and freezing of federal funds due to the participation of former UPenn swimmer and national champion Lia Thomas three years ago. Yes, you read that right: three years ago.
U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon last week, while dodging questions about her department’s future, boldly stood with the anti-trans initiatives of the Administration.
“To all the entities that continue to allow men to compete in womens sports, there’s a new sheriff in town,” she stated.
GLAAD sharply criticized the effort in a statement deriding the plans as a “baseless plan with the potential to waste untold taxpayer resources to pursue an unhinged agenda of animus.
“Targeting a handful of athletes does nothing to protect women and girls,” GLAAD continued. “In fact, these bans endanger all girls as they risk invasive genital exams and other expensive ‘verification.’”
Those concerns fueled a Democrat-led filibuster that stopped a vote on a GOP-sponsored “Protection of Women and Girls in Sports” bill in the Senate in February.
As the rhetoric intensifies, the focus will shift on Washington state’s high school governing body, considering changes to their transgender inclusion policies in the next week. A group of smaller school districts, led by schools who believe the performance of a transgender student-athlete cost them a state championship in track and field last year, are leading an effort to either place a blanket ban on trans girls or the creation of an “open” category for trans student-athletes.