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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s administration criticized the Biden administration for proposing new regulations that would prevent schools from enforcing bans on transgender males participating in girls’ sports, vowing to reject it.
Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz Jr. released a statement in response to the proposed regulations, stating that Florida will never tolerate them.
“This is a sad, pathetic attempt from a completely inept administration to force their woke worldview on the rest of us,” Diaz said. “Since Joe Biden can’t get Congress or the Supreme Court to rubberstamp his radical gender ideology, he’s resorted to bullying America’s students through the federal bureaucracy. Good luck – this won’t fly in Florida.”
“We will never allow boys to play in girls’ sports,” he noted further. “We will fight this overreach tooth and nail. And we will stop at nothing to uphold the protections afforded women under Title IX.”
The Biden Administration is now trying to force states to allow boys to play in girls’ sports. @SenMannyDiazJr’s response? “Good luck — this won’t fly in Florida.”
Full statement from Commissioner Diaz below. pic.twitter.com/CNEhpHpWOY
— Alex Lanfranconi (@AlexLanfran) April 6, 2023
According to Biden’s Department of Education, schools that receive federal funding cannot impose a complete ban on biological males participating in girls sports, but they can exclude them on a case-by-case basis, the Daily Wire noted.
“The proposed rule … recognizes that in some instances, particularly in competitive high school and college athletic environments, some schools may adopt policies that limit transgender students’ participation,” the education department said.
But, the proposal would allow schools “the flexibility to develop their own participation policies,” the department’s proposed rule added.
“Sex-related criteria” must meet two standards: First, they must be related to an “important educational objective,” and second, they must also “minimize harms” to the trans-identified student. For instance, preventing sports-related injuries would be an example of an “important educational objective,” the rule notes.
Last year in North Carolina, a female high school volleyball player suffered severe head and neck injuries after being hit by a volleyball spiked by a trans-identifying player, highlighting the risks that girls face when playing with biological males in sports.
Another example of an “important educational objective” is “fairness in competition,” the rule states.
“Fairness in competition may be particularly important for recipients in some sports, grade and education levels, and levels of competition,” said the department.
Several female athletes in high schools and colleges across several states have protested against being compelled to compete against biological males. In Connecticut, a group of high school girls filed Title IX claims in a federal lawsuit in 2020, claiming that competing against trans-identifying males cost them their chances of winning championship titles, state records, and scholarships.
The proposed regulations have received criticism from parental rights advocates who argue that they are too vague, leading schools to avoid enforcing any restrictions on males competing in girls’ sports, the Daily Wire noted further.
“The Biden Administration is trying to have their cake and eat it too: inject gender identity into athletics while placing the onus upon school districts to determine whether doing so would be problematic or not,” Nicole Neily, president and founder of Parents Defending Education, said of the rule proposal.
“Without a doubt, institutions are going to err on the side of ‘inclusion,’ because they fear the wrath of the Education Department – thus, achieving the Department’s end goal while allowing them to maintain plausible deniability that they coerced districts into doing so,” she added.
Meanwhile, Erika Sanzi, the group’s outreach director, called Biden a “gender czar,” saying his Education Department is “putting school districts in an impossible position.”
The proposed regulations will now undergo a period of public comment, during which it is expected to face opposition from critics. If approved, the rules would be applicable to all K-12 public schools, as well as colleges and universities that receive federal funding.
Last year, DeSantis ripped Biden and his administration over a previous attempt to impose woke gender policies on schools, saying he was “off his rocker.”
“In Florida, we are fighting against Biden’s intentionally destructive policies like denying school lunches for states that refuse to implement woke gender ideology in the schools,” DeSantis said.
He continued: “We’re prepared for what Biden throws our way. And, you know, yes, part of it’s the inflation and the gas — part of it are intentionally destructive policies like trying to deny school lunch programs for states that don’t do transgender ideology in the schools.”
“I mean, give me a break,” he added. “Totally off his rocker to be doing that. We’re fighting on that, don’t worry. So we’re just prepared to be able to defend the taxpayers and the hard-working people in the state of Florida, and I couldn’t be prouder for doing that.”
In Florida, we are fighting against Biden’s intentionally destructive policies like denying school lunches for states that refuse to implement woke gender ideology in the schools. pic.twitter.com/YXpTky75Jn
— Ron DeSantis (@GovRonDeSantis) June 5, 2022
