Governor Brad Little signed an executive order Wednesday directing the Idaho Board of Education to ensure that Idaho public schools ensure “fairness in women’s sports.”
Little signed the order on the steps of the Statehouse in Boise, where dozens of Idaho students cheered on the Republican governor. Former competitive swimmer and activist Riley Gaines, who opposes the inclusion of transgender women in women’s sports, praised the order.
The decree instructs the Council of State:
- Cooperation with the Ministry of Education toEnsure that public schools “properly comply with all Idaho laws regarding fairness in women’s sports,”
- Inform public schools about legal challenges to President Joe Biden’s proposed rewrite of Title IX and
- Guarantee that female students in Idaho “are afforded the greatest possible equal opportunity in athletics and in school, as guaranteed to them in the original Title IX rules.”
Little said the order was based on “basic fundamental truths.”
“Biological males, men and boys have physical differences that give them an unfair advantage in competition with women and girls,” he said.
The order does not reference specific state laws regarding “fairness in women’s sports.” This year, Idaho lawmakers passed a law that changed the legal definition of “sex” to a person’s “biological sex, male or female” and considered “gender” synonymous with that definition of sex.
Supporters of excluding transgender women from women’s sports celebrated the new law as a step towards preserving “gender spaces”.
In 2020, Idaho became the first U.S. state to enact a ban on transgender women participating in women’s public school sports. However, a federal judge blocked the state from enforcing the law because of a constitutional challenge by a transgender student at Boise State University. Last month, the state’s attorney general Raúl Labrador has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the injunction. His request is still pending.
Meanwhile, Little, Labrador and other Idaho Republican Party leaders have sharply criticized the Biden administration’s attempts to extend Title IX anti-discrimination protections to transgender students.
The sweeping overhaul of a 1972 federal law that banned sex discrimination in schools does not explicitly mention transgender athletes or require schools to allow transgender athletes to compete on teams that match their gender identity. But Republican leaders across the U.S. argued that the new rules would open the door to such requirements, the Associated Press reported.
Dozens of states, including Idaho, have filed suit to block the new rules. While the new version is still in legal limbo, Little’s executive order directs the state board to ensure that public schools comply with the “original Title IX rules.”
Gaines, a 12-time NCAA All-American who competed for the University of Kentucky swim team, rose to national prominence after the protest of a transgender athlete Lia Thomas’ national championship in women’s swimming.
On Wednesday, she praised Little for pointing out that Idaho would not comply with federal changes.
“There were very few countries, very few heads of state and government who were prepared to act so decisively and forcefully. That blows me away,” she said.. “This is not a message against anything. This message is for justice, for safety, for transparency. This message is for women.”
Idaho Education News has asked the State Board and the Department of Education for comment on the executive order.
