The U.S. Department of Education, which launched an investigation into a Colorado public school district for allegedly violating Title IX by allowing transgender athletes to compete on girls’ sports teams, may have egg on its face after failing to identify any transgender athletes.
As first reported by Chalkbeat, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) claimed that, as part of its investigation, it obtained athletic rosters from Jefferson County, Colorado — home to the state’s second-largest public school district — showing that “male students occupy 61 roster positions on girls’ sports teams.”
But in a letter to the community, Jeffco Public Schools said that none of those flagged as male were competing as athletes.
“The OCR publicly stated that more than 60 male students are competing on Jeffco girls’ athletic teams. That is simply not true,” the district wrote. “The girls’ sports rosters we provided to the OCR did not show that any athletes were male. Some teams had male managers, trainers, or mascots — not athletes.”
The letter continued, “Because the OCR never asked us to clarify the role of any individual listed on those rosters, we did not learn of this confusion until the OCR issued a press release.”
The school district also said the department has refused to back away from its original claim, writing: “[W]e have repeatedly and respectfully asked the OCR to address this factual error. They have declined to do so.”
The Education Department subsequently amended its press release to say that “male students may occupy up to 61 roster positions on girls’ sports teams in the District.” The agency refused to answer Chalkbeat‘s questions about the change and declined to comment on the news outlet’s reporting.
Under the second Trump administration, federal agencies have sought to crack down on any acknowledgement of gender identity — in keeping with an executive order signed by President Donald Trump — and withhold federal funding from entities that do not explicitly bar transgender individuals from accessing spaces or participating in single-sex activities that don’t align with their assigned sex at birth.
As part of that effort, the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights has launched investigations into school districts that make accommodations for transgender students. Jeffco Public Schools has been under investigation since last June.
OCR specifically investigated the district over its sleeping arrangements for transgender students on overnight school trips after a family sued, claiming their 11-year-old daughter was assigned to share a bed with a transgender student.
The office claimed that the district’s policy prohibiting anti-LGBTQ discrimination forces cisgender students to share rooms with peers who were not assigned the same sex at birth.
In March, OCR determined that the district’s policies on overnight accommodations, as well as those governing bathroom access and sports participation, violated Title IX, the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in educational institutions. The law allows schools to maintain sex-segregated facilities, provided those for one sex are equivalent to those for the other.
In its letter to the community, Jeffco Public Schools contested OCR’s claims and noted that it had submitted a formal response to the allegations. But in June, OCR issued an “impasse” letter stating that it believed further discussions with the district might no longer be productive.
“We believed our recent conversations with the OCR were moving in a positive direction,” the school district said in its letter. “We also remain well within the timeframe that the OCR’s own procedures provide for good-faith negotiations. The decision to step back from that process was the OCR’s, not ours.
“Throughout this process, Jeffco has engaged collaboratively, provided data, answered questions, and worked in good faith to address both factual and legal concerns,” the letter continues. “And yet, a central issue remains: the OCR’s conclusions appear to be based on a significant misunderstanding of information we have provided.”
Earlier this month, OCR threatened to pull funding from the district, which serves more than 74,000 students, if it didn’t change its policies granting special accommodations for transgender students. But the district said the Trump administration’s preferred policies conflict with Colorado’s civil rights law, which prohibits discrimination against various protected groups, including LGBTQ people.
“This places school districts in an impossible position,” the district wrote. “We must navigate conflicting requirements with clear state law on one side and non-binding federal guidance on the other.”
Jeffco Public Schools says it has “not given up on dialogue with the OCR.”
“We remain ready and willing to continue working with the OCR toward a resolution that puts students first and is grounded in accurate facts and sound law,” the district concluded. “Our focus remains what it has always been: providing equitable, exemplary educational opportunities for all students.”
Turkish authorities have banned a cruise ship catering to American LGBTQ travelers from docking in the country's ports, citing "moral standards and family values."
The "Athens to Venice" cruise, which departs from Greece on Sunday, July 5, was scheduled to dock in the Turkish port town of Kuşadası on July 7, followed by a trip to Istanbul, according to Atlantis Events, the LGBTQ travel company that organized the trip.
But local authorities in Turkey have canceled the "event," saying the ship was chartered by groups "known for behaviors incompatible with the fabric of our society and our moral values."
If you've known a true sociopath, it's likely you'll recognize the type among the three hyper-ambitious grad students in Aurin Squire's wicked new comedy My Favorite Sociopath.
Making its world premiere at the venerable Contemporary American Theater Festival, in Shepherdstown, West Virginia -- in a solid production directed by Céline Rosenthal -- the play pits the three aspiring journalists against each other for a plum job at a newspaper. And the competition gets dirty.
The tactics used by one or more of them to steal an advantage might be described as amoral. Their behavior could certainly be seen as sociopathic.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that state bans prohibiting transgender athletes from competing on girls' and women's sports teams in high school and college are constitutional and do not violate transgender athletes' right to equal protection under the law.
The 6-3 decision does not apply to intramural mixed-gender sports teams, such as voluntary adult leagues that do not receive federal funding.
The nation's highest court found that Title IX -- the federal law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in educational settings -- allows schools to maintain separate women's and men's sports teams based on biological sex due to the inherent physical differences between biological men and biological women.
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