A candidate running in the crowded Democratic primary for New York’s 10th congressional district called for revisions to the Biden administration’s proposed Title IX updates and the exclusion of transgender people from women’s athletics and “single-sex spaces.”
Former public defender and educational advocate Maud Maron — who is running against former Mayor Bill de Blasio, Rep. Mondaire Jones, Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou, and others in the Lower Manhattan and Brooklyn district — named the policies as one of the top issues she would address if elected to Congress.
“There’s a really big federal issue on the table that a lot of people, I think, may not know about or sort of understand the dynamics of which is the Biden administration is proposing to change Title IX guidance,” Maron told Errol Louis on “Inside City Hall” Tuesday. “What most people think of when they think of Title IX is what’s going on in sports, where trans athletes are competing in sports and girls and women are losing out to places on teams they should be on.”
“But Title IX is more than that,” Maron added.
Title IX is a federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in educational institutions funded by the federal government. The law applies to gender parity in college athletics, sexual harassment and assault, and discrimination based on gender identity.
The Biden administration has proposed changes to Title IX that would reverse many Trump administration-era decisions, including restoring schools’ reporting requirements and strengthening victim protections.
Maron said those changes would “walk back the due process” for college students accused of sexual harassment and assault. She also said the Biden administration’s decision to introduce protections for gender identity — as opposed to the Trump-era emphasis on “biological sex” — will do “real damage to girls and women.”
“We can protect trans people who certainly deserve a full compliment of civil rights and protections under the law, while also not decimating girls and women’s sports or removing single-sex spaces where they ought to be,” Maron said.
The American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics submitted a brief in federal court in 2021 saying barring transgender women from participating in school athletics consistent with their gender identity would “compound the stigma and discrimination that transgender children and adolescents face in the school environment.”
Transgender students make up 1.8% of all public high school students, according to the CDC. A survey from the Human Rights Campaign reported that less than 15% of all transgender boys and girls play sports.
Maron also discussed her campaign strategy, public safety, and her opposition to progressive politicians.
New York's congressional primary is Aug. 23.