{"id":197243,"date":"2026-02-27T23:58:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T23:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/197243\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T23:58:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T23:58:07","slug":"san-jose-state-university-should-fight-ruling-on-trans-athletes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/197243\/","title":{"rendered":"San Jos\u00e9 State University Should Fight Ruling on Trans Athletes"},"content":{"rendered":"

On January\u00a028, the Trump Administration\u2019s Department of Education Office for Civil Rights\u00a0found<\/a>\u00a0that San Jos\u00e9\u00a0State University violated Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments when it\u00a0allowed<\/a>\u00a0a transgender athlete to compete in women\u2019s sports. Further, the Department of Education made several demands, including that the university adopt biology-based definitions of the words \u201cmale\u201d and \u201cfemale\u201d and apologize to each \u201cfemale\u201d athlete for the alleged discrimination.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Religious ideas about sex and gender should not override scientific consensus in any governmental organization and especially not on a university campus. The Department of Education\u2019s position, while in line with goals set by the Heritage Foundation\u2019s\u00a0Project 2025<\/a>\u00a0blueprint, prioritizes a trending religious and conservative argument that overrides truth. It makes a bad-faith argument that students are not capable of assessing their own gender.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Allowing the Trump Administration to decide who is \u201cwoman enough\u201d to compete does not protect women; it only makes their existence more scrutinized.<\/p>\n

San Jos\u00e9\u00a0State University, where we teach, has an opportunity to push back against inaccurate and problematic definitions of womanhood. We urge that it do so.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While reviewing the decision, the university administration has\u00a0stated<\/a>\u00a0that it remains committed to the campus\u2019s role as a \u201cplace of learning, respect, and opportunity for all.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, when placed in a similar situation last year, the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League institution with a massive endowment,\u00a0caved<\/a>\u00a0to the pressure and imposed a ban on transgender athletes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As social scientists, we know that both biological sex and gender\u00a0exist<\/a>\u00a0on a spectrum. The\u00a0effort<\/a>\u00a0to cram the complexity of human biology into two distinct categories, male and female, is misguided and doomed to fail. We urge the university to not acquiesce to this unjust order and to take action to reject this encroachment and overreach.<\/p>\n

In fact, from the earliest moments of women\u2019s participation in modern sports, sporting institutions have\u00a0struggled<\/a>\u00a0to delineate \u201cmale\u201d from \u201cfemale.\u201d Women athletes have been\u00a0subject<\/a>\u00a0to invasive and humiliating physical examination of their genitals, hormone levels, and chromosomes. None of these methods have been successful. Women athletes, endocrinologists, and geneticists\u00a0fought to end<\/a>\u00a0this sexist practice, which is once again finding support among men who aren\u2019t afraid to abuse their power.<\/p>\n

If the Department of Education truly believed that sex- and gender-based discrimination in sports needs to be stopped, it should look at the abundance of evidence that shows that gender-based discrimination still exists, both in opportunity, resources, and treatment. The\u00a0weaponization<\/a>\u00a0of Title IX to exclude trans women does not remedy the many disparities for women in sports; instead, it\u00a0exacerbates<\/a>\u00a0them.<\/p>\n

For example, Department of Education data from 2023-2024, analyzed by Accelerate Equity,\u00a0show<\/a>\u00a0that 84 percent of post-secondary institutions fail to provide gender equity in opportunity and treatment in sports.<\/p>\n

At San Jos\u00e9 State University, where women undergraduates\u00a0outnumber<\/a>\u00a0men, there are\u00a0more<\/a>\u00a0male athletes and more scholarships for men students,\u00a0more than double<\/a>\u00a0the recruiting expenditures, and upward of $1 million more\u00a0spent<\/a>\u00a0on athletic related student aid for men as compared to women. These funding disparities are\u00a0worse<\/a>\u00a0in states with bans on trans athletes.<\/p>\n

Just because people in authority impose a judgment doesn\u2019t mean it is right. This federal regime\u00a0defunds science<\/a>, replaces experienced experts with those who\u00a0demonstrate loyalty<\/a>,\u00a0and pushes an antiquated agenda over democracy and sustainability. For these reasons, we may not be surprised by the Department of Education\u2019s conclusions, but we, and in this case, the California State University system should resist complying with its edict.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The impacts of this case are both tangible and symbolic. It does no one justice to continue to spread false information and propaganda over evidence. We don\u2019t need the government to tell us the sky is blue; we know it. We also don\u2019t need them to tell us our gender.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We urge the university to not acquiesce to this unjust order, to say no, and to take action to reject this encroachment and overreach. Giving in to the demands of bullies only emboldens them.<\/p>\n

his column was produced for\u00a0Progressive Perspectives<\/a>, a project of The Progressive magazine, and distributed by Tribune News Service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On January\u00a028, the Trump Administration\u2019s Department of Education Office for Civil Rights\u00a0found\u00a0that San Jos\u00e9\u00a0State University violated Title IX…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[91822,91823,975,88,90,89,127,48636],"class_list":["post-197243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-grace-e-howard","tag-megan-thiele-strong","tag-opinion","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-sports","tag-transgender-rights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}