More than a dozen female athletes have sued the National Collegiate Athletic Association over its transgender participation policy, which the athletes claim violates their rights under Title IX, the law that prohibits discrimination based on sex at any institution that receives federal funding.
The lawsuit stems from the January 2022 ruling by the NCAA Board of Governors that allows transgender athletes to compete in the category of their affirmed gender on a sport-by-sport basis. The NCAA said that this ruling “preserves opportunity for transgender student-athletes while balancing fairness, inclusion and safety for all who compete.”
This week, 16 female athletes across sports like swimming, soccer and track and field, filed the lawsuit, saying in the lawsuit that they “bring this case to secure for future generations of women the promise of Title IX that is being denied them and other college women.”
“A lot of people ask us, why did we wait this long to file a lawsuit? Well, we waited this long to allow the NCAA every opportunity to make the right decision,” Kaitlynn Wheeler, a former University of Kentucky swimmer, told ABC News.
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John Keefe