On September 19, 2025, Defending Ed filed an amicus brief in support of Title IX’s promise of equality in education and women’s scholastic sports.

Separating male and female students based on biological differences is not discriminatory under Title IX or under the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause. In fact, sex-specific sports teams are a necessary and beneficial measure to ensure that female students have the same athletic opportunities as their male peers. Requiring schools to ignore these biological realities and place female students in competitions against their male peers would undermine Title IX’s central purpose and jeopardize the safety, equality, and privacy of female students. 

Sarah Parshall Perry, Defending Ed’s Vice President and Legal Fellow said: 

“The text, congressional record, and implementing regulations are clear: Title IX was passed to rectify historical inequalities between educational opportunities for men and women. Prior to 1972, women could not attend graduate schools, play school sports, or even attend most four-year colleges. To say that the law actually requires the inclusion of natal men (self-identifying as “transgender girls”) in female athletics is utterly specious. As the Supreme Court has demonstrated in other anti-discrimination cases like Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services, a law’s plain language matters, and Title IX’s prohibition on sex discrimination does not include any purported discrimination based on “gender identity” or “transgender status.” Congress could have amended Title IX to include those categories, but did not. We look forward to the Supreme Court’s ultimate resolution of the litigation in favor of women’s safety and educational equality.” 

---