UN expert says changing Title IX protections from sex-based to gender identity would violate the rights of women and girls

The UN Human Rights Council put out a press release aimed at the U.S. Department of Education saying: “Proposed rule changes to Title IX would violate the rights to equality and non-discrimination of student-athletes that are biological women and girls and contravene the United States’ obligations under international human rights law, a UN expert warned today.”

That expert is Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, Reem Alsalem. The U.S. Department of Education has proposed removing the protections Title IX originally afforded girls and women based on sex, to say instead that Title IX protections, including athletic eligibility, should be based on gender identity.

Here I’ll just paste the rest of Alsalem’s strongly worded press release.

“I share the concern expressed by women and girl athletes and women sports associations, as well as women and girls on sports scholarships, that the proposed Title IX rule changes would have detrimental effects on the participation of biological women and girls in sports, including by denying them the opportunity to compete fairly, resulting in the loss of athletic and scholarship opportunities,” said Reem Alsalem, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls.

The proposed change to Title IX would also lead to the removal of intimate spaces such as separate shower facilities and locker rooms for males and females.

“More importantly, it would lead to the loss of privacy, an increased risk of physical injury, heightened exposure to sexual harassment and voyeurism, as well as a more frequent and accumulated psychological distress due to the loss of privacy and fair and equal sporting and academic opportunities,” Alsalem said.

"If the proposed changes are adopted, they would contravene the United States’ international human rights obligations and commitments concerning the prevention of all forms of violence and discrimination against women and girls on the basis of sex,” the expert added.

She noted that dropping the proposed changes would not impair the ability of any persons, including transgender women and girls, to exercise their right to participate in sports.

“Applying non-invasive means of confirming the sex of the student and the establishment of open categories, would maintain fairness in sports for female athletes while broadening opportunities for participation by all, irrespective of gender identity, in line with the course of actions taken by several sports associations,” Alsalem said.

“Barring rare exceptions, sport has globally been separated into male and female categories because of male performance advantage throughout the life cycle,” she said.

Alsalem responded to my follow-up email by saying: “I have been following for a while the issue of fairness in sports and non-discrimination based on sex in the US and internationally. If passed, the change [to Title IX] would set a dangerous and concerning precedence.”

I particularly like Alsalem’s solution to inclusion of transgender student athletes. The “non-invasive means of confirming sex” might be a cheek swab, or it might simply be the sports physical that all U.S. student athletes have to complete before participating in sports. World Aquatics protected the women’s category by creating an open category for men who identified as women and nonbinary athletes, as Alsalem alluded to.

Interestingly, Alsalem’s stance seems in direct conflict with UN Women’s complete acceptance of trans ideology, and the idea that a trans woman is a woman. UN Women has produced lots of materials that assure that the organization "speaks with one voice" on the topic of transgender women, that being that trans women are not biological men but rather just another kind of woman. As such, they work for equal rights and opportunities, including in sports, for trans women and girls. This is incompatible with the arguments put forth in Alsalem’s article. And I asked her about this apparent conflict. She said: “I am an independent expert appointed by the human rights council. I am therefore not part of UN Women, nor do I answer to it.”

She suggested I direct my questions about how UN Women can work to forward the rights of trans women and girls (in the interest of diplomacy I did not use the terms men and boys) to participate in female sports while also protecting the right of women and girls to fairness, opportunity, safety, and privacy. I asked UN Women how they justified the “violation of women and girls' rights,” as Alsalem called it, that UN Women seems to uphold. I did not receive a reply.

Reem Alsalem’s advocacy has been hailed by women’s rights groups, not only for its message of protecting sex-based rights, but for her courage in voicing a clear evidence-based argument that is clearly at odds with UN Women. It’s a measure of how far women’s rights have regressed that she is a lone voice among women’s organizations (!) advocating to hold onto a victory that was won more than 50 years ago.