ICONS Pressures United Nations On Transgenders In Sports Issue After Title IX Overhaul
After President Joe Biden took it upon himself to overhaul Title IX, the Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS) is putting pressure on the United Nations to take action.
The organization submitted a letter to Reem Alsalem, the United Nations special rapporteur on violence against women and girls, to ask that males seeking to participate in female sports be considered violence against women.
Demonstrators listen to the speaking program during an "Our Bodies, Our Sports" rally for the 50th anniversary of Title IX at Freedom Plaza.
(Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The brief is a direct response to Biden's rewrite of Title IX that changes the definition of sex to be defined as a person's gender identity — therefore allowing trans-identifying males to participate in women's sports and to enter single-sex spaces like restrooms and locker rooms.
"Title IX was a federal law written to protect women and the Biden administration has now turned it into a law that protects men at the expense of women," ICONS co-founders Marshi Smith and Kim Jones told the Washington Examiner. "With the stroke of a pen, Biden has reversed Congressional intention and turned Title IX into blatant call to subjugate women and girls."
ICONS Sends Brief To United Nations
In the letter to the U.N., Smith and Jones argue that allowing men to self-identify into women’s sports is "credibly characterized as ‘violence'" because "norms of eligibility are violated, and the risk of injuries to athletes of a given category are knowingly elevated."
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And Reem Alsalem seems to agree. In a statement released April 29, she asked for organizations and individuals to provide input in order to build a report about violence against female athletes.
"The erroneous redefinition of ‘sex’ through these implementing regulations constitutes a grave setback that will increase the vulnerability of the majority of women and girls to incursions into their privacy, including voyeurism, sexual harassment and physical and sexual attacks, by effectively removing single-sex spaces," she wrote.
Biden's Title IX changes officially go into effect on Aug. 1. But already, there's been intense pushback. Several Republican-led states have joined a lawsuit filed against the U.S. Department of Education in an attempt to protect privacy, safety and fairness for female student-athletes. And many governors have said their states simply will not comply with the new rules.
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The U.N. report is scheduled to be presented in the October 2024 General Assembly session.