OCR Complaint: Smith College

On June 20th, 2025 Defending Education (DE) filed a complaint against Smith College (Smith) for discrimination on the basis of sex in programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance in violation of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 (Title IX), 20 U.S.C. § 1681 et. seq. 

DE has brought this complaint as an interested third-party organization with members who are parents  and students throughout the country. DE and its members oppose, among other things, discrimination on the basis of sex in America’s K-12 schools and institutions of higher education. Title IX prohibits discrimination based on sex in any education program or activity receiving  federal financial assistance. At the same time, Title IX also protects single-sex spaces: for example, female students are entitled to sex-segregated intimate spaces, single-sex membership in sororities,  single-sex athletic teams, and single-sex admissions where an institution has held itself out to be single-sex and provides substantially equivalent educational opportunities. 

Smith College is among the largest all-women’s colleges in the country. The college’s Equal  Education Opportunity Policy indicates that it will follow Title IX and prohibit discrimination on  the basis of sex in its federally funded programs. The very same policy, however, indicates that  Smith interprets Title IX to prohibit “gender identity” discrimination, despite federal case law and  this Department’s guidance to the contrary. 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.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. 

The college’s admission policy appears to violate Title IX for the same reason. It also violates  various Presidential Executive Orders on policies related to sex discrimination in federally funded  programs and this Department’s stakeholder guidance on Title IX and the prevention of sex  discrimination in federally funded programs. According to Smith, its supposedly women-only  admission policy “include[s] self-identified transgender women.” 

The admissions policy provision on “Gender Identity and Expression” confirms that the college  gives spots to “self-identifi[ed]” transgender women that would have otherwise gone to biological women:  

Who is eligible to apply to Smith? 

People who identify as women—cis, trans and nonbinary women—are eligible to apply to  Smith. 

What is required of trans and nonbinary women applicants to be considered for admission? 

Smith’s policy is one of self-identification. The applicant’s affirmation of identity is  sufficient.

Ironically, in what appears to be yet another exercise in sex discrimination, Smith admits natal men  who identify as women but does not admit natal women who identify as men. 

In addition, Smith’s policies on “Gender Identity and Expression” indicate that “[e]very single occupancy restroom on campus is designated all-gender, and more and more multi-stall bathrooms  are as well.” The college also advertises “[a]n all-gender locker room in the athletic facilities,” and the college’s Health & Wellness Center “provides trans-affirming primary care, including  hormone therapy.” 

Smith’s independent student newspaper also indicates that the Health & Wellness Center will hew  to Massachusetts law instead of federal directives on the provision of so-called “gender affirming” care and continue in the provision of “trans-affirming primary care.” 

Making matters worse, Smith threatens to investigate and/or punish students who disagree with  the college’s unlawful policies on gender identity and sex. The school maintains a “Bias Response  Team” dedicated to the investigation of: 

Incidents … includ[ing] an act of bigotry, harassment or intimidation based on age, color,  creed, disability, gender identity, gender expression, race, religion, nation/ethnic origin,  sex, sexual orientation or veteran status committed on campus for which the respondent  cannot be identified. This includes, but is not limited to, slurs, graffiti, written messages,  or images that harass or intimidate individuals or groups because of their membership  in the above listed protected classes. 

In United States v. Virginia, the Supreme Court explained that sex discrimination—which includes  policies, like Smith’s, that fail to respect sex-specific programs and spaces—is presumptively  unlawful. Smith’s gender identity policies cannot possibly satisfy that standard because the entire  purpose of Title IX is to “protec[t] biological women in education.” That purpose is directly  undermined by policies that “subordinate the fears, concerns, and privacy interests of biological women to the desires of transgender biological men” who want to intrude upon spaces normally reserved for “their female peers.” Smith’s preference for gender identity over biological sex, in other words, “subvert[s] the original purpose of Title IX.”

The Department’s own guidance on Title IX clarifies that covered educational programs and  activities include: “[A]ll the operations of a school that receives financial assistance including  academics, extracurricular activities, athletics, and other programs. Title IX applies to all  operations of a school, including those that take place in the facilities of the school, on a school  bus, or in a class or training program sponsored by the school at another location.” 

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.  

Accordingly, we have asked that the Department promptly investigate all the allegations in this complaint,  act swiftly to remedy unlawful policies and practices, and order appropriate relief.