The Biden Administration is enacting new Title IX rules to stretch the definition of sexual discrimination to include gender identity. This change is intended to prevent schools and colleges from prohibiting biological men from competing in women’s sports.

The proposed change would mean that no educational institution that receives federal funding would be able to implement policies that ban transgender students from participating in sports teams that align with their chosen identity.

The White House issued a press release explaining the proposed change:

“The proposed rule would establish that policies violate Title IX when they categorically ban transgender students from participating on sports teams consistent with their gender identity just because of who they are. The proposed rule also recognizes that in some instances, particularly in competitive high school and college athletic environments, some schools may adopt policies that limit transgender students’ participation. The proposed rule would provide schools with a framework for developing eligibility criteria that protects students from being denied equal athletic opportunity, while giving schools the flexibility to develop their own participation policies.”

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona touted the change, arguing that it would promote more inclusion in sports.

“Every student should be able to have the full experience of attending school in America, including participating in athletics, free from discrimination. Being on a sports team is an important part of the school experience for students of all ages,” Cardona said. “Beyond all the benefits to physical and mental health, playing on a team teaches students how to work hard, get along with others, believe in themselves, and build healthy habits that last a lifetime. Today’s proposed rule is designed to support Title IX’s protection for equal athletics opportunity. We welcome and encourage public comment on the proposed regulation and will continue working to ensure Title IX’s effective protection for all students.”

This one will most definitely throw more gas on the dumpster fire that is the debate over transgender issues. Aside from the effort to push transgender ideology in the classroom, the issue of biological males competing in women’s sports has been one of the most hot-button issues related to gender identity.

Proponents of this idea argue that it is more inclusive to allow transgender females to play the sport aligning with their gender identity. They argue that the physical differences do not give them an advantage over their competition.

On the other side, sane people recognize that the notion that biological men have no significant strength advantage over biological women is about as crazy as a soup sandwich. They argue that allowing this is unfair to biological female athletes who work hard to hone their skills only to be beaten by men.

Nicole Neily, president of Parents Defending Education, a parental rights advocacy group, issued a statement in which she accused the Biden Administration of trying to use its position to compel schools to abide by progressive gender identity:

“The Biden Administration is trying to have their cake and eat it too: inject gender identity into athletics while placing the onus upon school districts to determine whether doing so would be problematic or not. Without a doubt, institutions are going to err on the side of ‘inclusion,’ because they fear the wrath of the Education Department – thus, achieving the Department’s end goal while allowing them to maintain plausible deniability that they coerced districts into doing so.”

Well, there you have it. Let the fireworks begin.