The Supreme Court's recent ruling that the Civil Right Act does apply to workplace discrimination based on gender identity has already prompted lower federal courts to start striking down discriminatory policies, but that has not swayed Trump's Department of Education.
You may recall that the Department of Education recently told the state of Connecticut that they can't allow transgender children to participate in youth sports programs that are appropriate for their identity. It's illegal to discriminate under state law, but the Education Department is threatening their access to federal funding over the issue.
The fight between the state and the Trump regime began before the Supreme Court's ruling, but the ruling hasn't changed anything. The regime is doubling down and even drew attention to the Supreme Court's ruling just to say it doesn't apply to them.
The department's shift comes shortly after the Supreme Court said that discrimination on the basis of sex, which is forbidden in the workplace under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, includes sexual orientation and gender identity. The Education Department said because the opinion was about discrimination in the workplace, it does not have authority over the Education Department's Title IX statute -- the law that prohibits sex discrimination in schools.
In one of the letters released last week, the department noted that the Supreme Court had "recognized the significant differences between workplaces and schools," citing previous Supreme Court rulings.
That's one opinion, but not one shared by actual federal courts.
In his majority opinion, Justice Neil Gorsuch did write that their ruling applies to the workplace and is not necessarily applicable to all forms of discrimination, but the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington D.C. recently cited the highest court's ruling to strike down a Virginia school district's policy against transgender bathroom use.
In short, it makes no linguistic sense at all to say "sex" covers gender identity under one section of the Civil Rights Act but not every section.
That's what Trump's Department of Education would have you believe, but I don't think any federal appeals court is going to agree and the Biden administration won't either.
Proponents of transgender discrimination would also have you believe that transgender children participating in a boys or girls sports program have an unfair physical advantage, but nothing could be further from the physical truth. Human bodies are not developed enough at that age to confer any concrete advantage. Boys enter puberty significant later that girls, and girls have less muscle mass to start with. Children taking puberty blockers could actually have a disadvantage because the general development of their body is delayed.
Professional transgender athletes exist, but you don't see them automatically winning awards because being transgender does not make you superhuman as much as I wish it did.