HARRISBURG – Continuing to uphold her promise to fight for the rights of women athletes, Cumberland County Rep. Barb Gleim signed onto a letter with 61 of her colleagues to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights urging the office to reverse its proposal to amend Title IX, which protects women’s sports from discrimination. The expansion of Title IX would remove the binary language under existing law and add sexual orientation and gender identity. A former college athlete, Gleim said, “This expansion in federal law would undo the past 50 years of female athletic advancements.” The members contend in the letter that redefining the term “sex” to include “gender identity” and “sexual orientation” will allow biological males to compete in women’s sports, placing women and girls at a disadvantage both on the field and in the competition for athletic scholarships. Biological males will be allowed in women’s spaces, as schools will be required to give biological men access to women’s restrooms, locker rooms, showers and athletic facilities, violating women’s basic right to privacy in what previously were safe spaces. In April, the General Assembly passed House Bill 972, the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act, which would have prevented biological males from playing women’s sports in PA; however, Gov. Tom Wolf vetoed it.
