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A junior in high school, Selina Soule is asking for fairness to be returned to her sport. (Photo: The Daily Signal)The Daily Signal

PETITION: Biological males don't belong in girls' sports! #IStandWithSelina! Sign the petition here.

February 7, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – LifeSiteNews delivered a petition with nearly 200,000 signatures to the U.S. Office for Civil Rights (OCR) in Washington, D.C., supporting Selina Soule's complaint against a Connecticut state policy mandating boys who claim that they are girls to play in girls' sports.

LifeSite’s Director of Advocacy, Gualberto Garcia Jones, and one of LifeSite’s Campaign Coordinators, Scott Schittl, hand-delivered five 1.5-inch-thick binders full of signatures to the OCR earlier this week.

“This is a case of basic fairness for women in sports,” Garcia Jones said after the petition delivery. “Title IX was never meant to be used to discriminate against women. Quite the opposite, in fact. And, until now, it has allowed women to achieve near parity in participation in sports. That’s why new Title IX guidelines, which will both safeguard girls’ competition, for girls only, as well as girls’ safety in sport, will be welcomed nationwide.”

Soule is a high school senior from Glastonbury, Connecticut, who lodged a complaint with the federal Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights along with two other female athletes who remain unnamed because of their fear of retaliation. 

The complaint alleges that the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) discriminated against biological girls and violated their Title IX rights.

Title IX was implemented in 1972 to help ensure that girls would have the same opportunities in sports as boys, and most observers agree that it has been successful.

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But Title IX never anticipated that boys would seek to compete as girls and does not mention “gender identity.”

“Most people know, deep down, that allowing biological boys to play in girls sports is wrong because it is unjust,” Schittl said. “Not that they have anything against gender-confused boys, as people. But it’s just that they want the effort – put in by the girls and women in their lives – to be vindicated by fair competition.”

“People still understand basic fairness in the United States, and that’s why so many people have signed the petition,” he added.

In Connecticut and 19 other states, girls are now forced to compete against biological boys claiming to be “girls,” and these policies unfairly deprive biological girls of the right to a level playing field in competitions that they can never win despite their best efforts.

As of now, a new guidance ruling by the Office for Civil Rights has not yet been issued.

During the petition delivery, Garcia Jones and Schittl spoke to one of the OCR’s Confidential Assistants (her official title), Chelsea Henderson, and she confirmed the ongoing investigation into the complaint.

CLICK HERE to sign and share this petition.