Federal funding threatened over transgender athlete policy

By PAT EATON-ROBB
September 17, 2020

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Education is threatening to withhold some federal funding from Connecticut school districts if they follow a state policy that allows transgender girls to compete as girls in high school sports.

In response to a complaint filed last year by several cisgender female track athletes who argued that two transgender female runners had an unfair physical advantage, the federal agency’s office for civil rights determined in May that Connecticut’s policy violates the civil rights of athletes who are not transgender.

School districts including New Haven, as well as the Capitol Region Education Council, were asked around the beginning of September to sign a document to receive grants from a program for magnet schools that states they will “not participate in any interscholastic sporting events” unless the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference changes its policy on transgender athletes.

The Federal Magnet Schools Assistance Program Grants are worth about $3 million a year to New Haven and the education council.

The athletic conference has said its policy is designed to comply with a state law that requires all students to be treated as the gender with which they identify.

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