Trump’s Ed Dept launches ‘special investigations team’ to root out gender ideology, trans athletes

The Department of Education (ED) announced Friday it has launched a “Title IX Special Investigations Team” (SIT) to help address complaints relating to school gender ideology programs, including the trend of biological males competing in female sports.

The team will consist of attorneys from ED’s Office for Civil Rights, ED’s Office of General Counsel and the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Civil Rights Division, as well as ED Student Privacy and Protection Office case workers, according to ED’s announcement.

“Today’s establishment of the Title IX SIT will benefit women and girls across this nation who have been subjected to discrimination and indignity in their educational activities,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said. “From day one, the Trump Administration has prioritized enforcing Title IX to protect female students and athletes. Traditionally, our Office for Civil Rights (OCR) takes months, even years, to complete Title IX investigations. OCR under this Administration has moved faster than it ever has, and the Title IX SIT will ensure even more rapid and consistent investigations. To all the entities that continue to allow men to compete in women’s sports and use women’s intimate facilities: there’s a new sheriff in town. We will not allow you to get away with denying women’s civil rights any longer.”

The Trump administration has been working to dismantle “Gender Ideology Extremism” in schools since President Donald Trump’s first day in office for his second term. Trump’s day-one executive order, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” asserted the federal recognition of only “two sexes, male and female,” while acknowledging the biological differences between men and women. Trump signed another executive order on Feb. 5 banning men from competing in women’s sports and subsequently demanded the NCAA restore female records that had been taken away by male athletes.

“Protecting women and women’s sports is a key priority for this Department of Justice,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in the announcement. “This collaborative effort with the Department of Education will enable our attorneys to take comprehensive action when women’s sports or spaces are threatened and use the full power of the law to remedy any violation of women’s civil rights.”

Several female athletes have been injured after being forced to compete against males, such as 19-year-old Payton McNabb, who suffered a traumatic brain injury after a male athlete claiming to be a transgender female spiked a volleyball onto her head.

States like California and Maine currently have policies that allow, or even require, school officials to keep secrets from parents if their child desires to change their name or pronouns or use opposite-sex facilities. The Trump administration has been cracking down on these policies, opening investigations and threatening federal funding to the states.

Several schools have also been exposed for teaching radical content to children, with the federal government under the Biden administration payrolling several of these programs. The Department of Education between 2021 and 2024 spent over $100 million on grants to universities meant to train K-12 social workers in critical race theory, social justice and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). The Trump administration has since been working to cut such programs.

The Trump administration has pulled $175 million from the University of Pennsylvania over its allowing men to compete in women’s sports and has opened an investigation into Maine for its policies on the same issue.

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