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Tags: reema salem | transgender | un | biden

UN Official: Biden Trans Sports Push Imperils Women

By    |   Friday, 23 February 2024 12:20 PM EST

The Biden administration's push to amend equality legislation to boost transgender participation in female sports in U.S. schools and colleges is a threat to women, according to Reem Alsalem, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls.

"[It would] likely deprive female student-athletes of equal sporting opportunities, public recognition, and well-deserved scholarship opportunities," Alsalem said to Newsweek, the publication reported Friday. 

Alsalem, of Jordan, sent a letter to the U.S. government in December, which has now been made public, stating that the plans would amount to "unfair treatment and unlawful and extreme forms of discrimination against most women and girls on the basis of female sex."

The Department of Education in April introduced proposals that would keep schools and colleges receiving federal funding from allowing athletes to participate on teams that match their gender identity, if that does not match their biological sex at birth. 

The changes would be based on an extension of Title IX protections banning sex-based discrimination in education to allow transgender students identifying as female to play in girls' or women's sports. 

Alsalem said her concerns also extend off the field. 

"Compelling women and girls to share their intimate spaces with males, including bathrooms and changing rooms, can violate their privacy and leave them open to greater risk of sexual harassment and physical attack," she said, adding keeping women's sports open only to biological females is a "human rights imperative of our time."

"Numerous studies have documented that males maintain performance advantages in sports across their lifespan and that while these advantages can be mitigated, they cannot be suppressed," Alsalem said. 

Selina Soule, part of a group of female athletes being represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian group, in a lawsuit against the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference after being required to compete against transgender females, told Newsweek she knows how "demoralizing" it is to "inevitably lose to a male runner."

"When we are forced to compete against males, female athletes like me lose out on not only medals and advancement opportunities but potential scholarship opportunities, too," she said, adding that she applauds Alsalem for standing up for female athletes. 

"I implore the Biden administration to take heed of this warning from the UN expert and protect our civil rights by preserving Title IX in its current form," Soule said. 

The National Center for Transgender Equality, however, told Newsweek in a statement that transgender youth are "at increased risk of assault and other forms of harm" when using bathrooms and other facilities that do not match their gender identity. 

"Banning transgender students from freely and safely accessing public places, like bathrooms and changing rooms, sends the message that transgender children do not belong," the center said. "Transgender students simply want to live freely and authentically as themselves, just like every other student."

Sandy Fitzgerald

Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics. 

© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.


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The Biden administration's push to amend equality legislation to boost transgender participation in female sports in U.S. schools and colleges is a threat to women, according to Reem Alsalem, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and Girls.
reema salem, transgender, un, biden
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2024-20-23
Friday, 23 February 2024 12:20 PM
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