Gov. Brad Little Wednesday signed an executive order directing the State Board of Education to ensure that Idaho public schools are safeguarding “fairness in women’s sports.”
Little signed the order on the Statehouse steps, 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 female sports, lauded the directive.
The executive order directs the State Board to:
- Work with the Department of Education to ensure public schools are “properly following all of Idaho’s laws related to fairness in women’s sports.”
- Update public schools about legal challenges to President Joe Biden’s proposed rewrite of Title IX.
- Guarantee that Idaho female students are “provided equal opportunity in sports and school to the fullest extent as guaranteed to them under the original Title IX rules.”
Little said the order is rooted in “basic fundamental truths.”
“Biological males, men and boys, have physical differences that give them an unfair advantage when competing with women and girls,” he said.
The order doesn’t point to specific state laws related to “fairness in women’s sports.” This year, Idaho lawmakers passed a bill that changed the statutory definition of “sex” to someone’s “biological sex, male or female” and that considered “gender” as synonymous with that definition of sex.
Advocates for barring transgender women from female sports celebrated the new law as a step toward preserving “single-sex spaces.”
In 2020, Idaho became the first U.S. state to enact a ban on transgender women competing in female public school sports. But a federal judge blocked the state from enforcing that law amid a constitutional challenge by a transgender Boise State University student. Last month, Attorney General Raúl Labrador asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the preliminary injunction. His request is pending.
Meanwhile, Little, Labrador and other GOP Idaho leaders have slammed the Biden administration’s attempts to expand Title IX’s anti-discrimination protections to transgender students.
The extensive rewrite of the 1972 federal law — which banned discrimination in schools on the basis of sex — does not explicitly mention transgender athletes or require schools to allow transgender athletes to compete on teams aligned with their gender identity. But Republican state leaders across the U.S. have argued that the new rules would open the door to such requirements, the Associated Press reported.
Dozens of states, including Idaho, have sued to block the new rules. While the rewrite remains in legal limbo, Little’s executive order directs the State Board to ensure that public schools adhere to 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 protesting transgender athlete Lia Thomas’ national championship in women’s swimming.
On Wednesday, she praised Little for signaling that “Idaho will not comply” with the federal changes.
“There have been few states, very few leaders who are willing to take this decisive action, forceful action, which blows my mind,” she said. “This is not a message that is ‘anti’ anything. This message is pro-fairness, it is pro-safety, it is pro-transparency. This message is pro-woman.”
State Board executive director Joshua Whitworth and state superintendent Debbie Critchfield issued a joint statement commenting on the executive order.
“The State Board of Education and the Idaho Department of Education look forward to working on any additional steps determined to be needed to help our districts understand the legal lay of the land so they can make sure they’re adhering to the governor’s order and the applicable laws,” they said. “The department will also continue communicating with local schools and keep them apprised of developments in the ongoing litigation related to this important issue.”
