• Economy
  • Investing
  • Politics
  • Sports
  • Editor’s Pick
Market Gains Updates
Sports

Opinion: Trump administration’s ‘Title IX Month’ is a farce

by June 4, 2025
by June 4, 2025

The Trump administration has declared June to be “Title IX Month,” and says it will celebrate “with actions to protect women in line with the true purpose of’ the landmark legislation that opened athletics and academia to girls and young women.

Hallelujah!

This means the Trump administration will finally crack down on all of those schools that, a half-century on, are still shorting their female athletes of both resources and facilities, right? It’s going to work with Congress to enact meaningful reform so the Center for SafeSport does, indeed, make sport safe from predatory coaches and support staff? Restore funding to the Department of Education so it can conduct robust Title IX investigations? Insist the NCAA ensures that women athletes aren’t being left behind by NIL and whatever the new structure of college sports looks like?

Oh, my bad.

The administration’s interest in Title IX is solely to use it as yet another cudgel to bully and erase transgender women. To promote fearmongering and hate over fewer than 10 NCAA athletes and 100 or so participating in youth and college sports.

This obsession over the genitalia of the teeniest, tiniest fraction of the population is, quite frankly, weird. Yet the right-wing has perpetuated the idea that transgender women are a threat to our very existence, and the Trump administration, never missing an opportunity to rile up its base, has run with it.

According to this White House, transgender people are so big and so strong they’re a marauding horde about to overrun the playing fields and podiums. They’re also supposed to be too weak to fight in the military, but never mind that contradiction! Keep your eyes focused on this “threat.”

Except transgender women are not, and never have been, the real danger facing women and women’s sports. Or women in larger society, for that matter.

When Title IX was passed 53 years ago this month, it was meant to lift the artificial constraints holding women back. And it has. Women now make up more than half the population in higher education, and the idea of telling a woman she can’t go to law school or med school because she would take a spot away from a man is now seen as, rightly, laughable.

The WNBA and NWSL are thriving, and U.S. women won the medal count at last summer’s Paris Olympics — just as they did in Beijing, Tokyo, Pyeongchang and Rio. Ratings and attendance for NCAA basketball, volleyball and softball are skyrocketing.

But there are still so many areas where women lag behind. Areas where an administration that was sincere about equity could make a difference.

A USA TODAY review in 2022 found that, for every $1 schools spent on travel, equipment and recruiting for their men’s teams, they spent 71 cents for their comparable women’s squads.

In just a two-year period, that added up to $125 million more spent on men than women in basketball, baseball and softball, golf, soccer, swimming and diving, and tennis.

Yet the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights has never — not once — withdrawn federal funding from a school for these end-arounds of Title IX. And given the gutting of the Department of Ed under Trump, that’s not likely to change! I doubt Education Secretary Linda McMahon will even be asked about it when she appears Wednesday before the U.S. House Committee on Education and Workforce.

The NCAA has been crying to Congress and the White House for protection from the financial dumpster fire it created and fueled. A system that is increasingly funneling more money to male athletes and putting women’s teams in jeopardy.

You can find at least one story a day of a coach being arrested or convicted of abusing a young athlete. They might not get the attention of Larry Nassar’s hideous crimes, but one case of abuse of a child is one case too many. Yet Congress has slow-walked SafeSport reforms and done little to address its continuing funding issues.

But go on about the tens of transgender athletes in youth and college sports.

The work to level the playing field begun by Title IX is not complete; the Trump administration is right about that. It would rather throw bombs and sow division than do it, though, and that is nothing to celebrate.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.

This post appeared first on USA TODAY
0 comment
0
FacebookTwitterPinterestEmail

previous post
Comer widens Biden ‘cover-up’ probe, seeks interviews with Anita Dunn and Ron Klain
next post
MLB All-Star Game voting is underway: What to know for 2025

You may also like

New York Liberty vs. Minnesota Lynx: How to...

July 30, 2025

Deion Sanders adjusts to new lifestyle after cancer:...

July 30, 2025

Fact or fiction?: Alabama will make the College...

July 30, 2025

Fantasy football 2025: Top second-year breakout picks

July 30, 2025

Olympic gold medalist dies after climbing accident

July 30, 2025

Astros mulling reunion with their former All-Star shortstop

July 30, 2025

Star pass rusher reports to camp but won’t...

July 30, 2025

Noah Lyles, Sha’Carri Richardson among stars to watch...

July 30, 2025

Inter Miami vs. Atlas in Leagues Cup: How...

July 30, 2025

NFL power rankings: As preseason starts, who’s threatening...

July 30, 2025
Enter Your Information Below To Receive Free Trading Ideas, Latest News And Articles.

    Your information is secure and your privacy is protected. By opting in you agree to receive emails from us. Remember that you can opt-out any time, we hate spam too!

    Top News

    Union Pacific to buy Norfolk in $85 billion...

    July 29, 2025

    Things are getting better at Boeing under CEO...

    July 29, 2025

    Elon Musk confirms Tesla has signed a $16.5...

    July 28, 2025

    Palantir joins list of 20 most valuable U.S....

    July 26, 2025

    FCC greenlights Paramount’s $8 billion merger with entertainment...

    July 25, 2025

    • About us
    • Contacts
    • Email Whitelisting
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms and Conditions

    Copyright © 2025 MarketGainsUpdates.com All Rights Reserved.

    Market Gains Updates
    • Economy
    • Investing
    • Politics
    • Sports
    • Editor’s Pick