Defending Education, a watchdog group focused on combating radical agendas in schools, has filed a civil rights complaint against one of the largest all-women’s colleges in the United States for admitting biological males who identify as transgender.
The complaint, submitted on Friday, argues that Smith College’s policies violate federal law, including Title IX. The organization is urging the Department of Education to investigate the Massachusetts-based college for sex-based discrimination.
According to the complaint, Smith College’s policy of admitting transgender-identifying males goes against executive orders signed by President Trump aimed at pushing back against gender ideology, as well as guidance from the Department of Education that states Title IX does not protect gender identity.
“Discrimination based on gender identity is not the same as discrimination based on sex under Title IX, as this Department well knows, and the Supreme Court has never held it is,” wrote Sarah Parshall Perry, Vice President of Defending Education, in the complaint.
“In other words, to the extent Smith’s accommodations for so-called gender identity encroach upon sex-specific programs and spaces, it is in violation of Title IX,” she added.
Smith College began admitting transgender-identifying males in 2015 after a year-long study on the subject, according to The Daily Wire. The school’s current policy, posted on its website, states that “People who identify as women—cis, trans and nonbinary women—are eligible to apply to Smith,” and that “Smith’s policy is one of self-identification. The applicant’s affirmation of identity is sufficient.”
Smith College also states on its site that it has “students, faculty and staff who are trans, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming,” and that its community “values the range of identities that the student body represents.” The school has expanded the number of multi-stall bathrooms designated as “all-gender,” along with locker rooms and other campus facilities.
“At a minimum, then, Smith’s gender-identity-based Equal Opportunity Policy; its admissions policy, which accepts natal men in lieu of similarly situated female applicants; and its all-gender restroom and locker room policies, which divest female students of their privacy, safety, and equal educational opportunity, all appear to violate Title IX,” Perry added in the complaint.
