The International Olympic Committee executive board this month approved a measure that will allow athletes who have undergone sex change surgery to compete in Olympic events under their reassigned gender.
The new policy goes into effect in time for this summer’s Olympics in Athens, Greece.
Athletes who want to compete as transsexuals will have to prove […]
The British Parliament of late has been considering the Gender Recognition Bill whose primary purpose is to allow transsexual individuals to formally re-register their gender to their newly reassigned gender, replacing for most legal purpose the gender of their birth. And, of course, this immediately created a debate about the most important related topic […]
A group representing various college coaching groups recently announced plans to sue the U.S. Department of Education over the way it enforces Title IX.
The Bush administration convened a Commission on Opportunity in Athletics to examine Title IX enforcement, but then ignored the commission’s findings. So the College Sports Council is headed back to court […]
In June a federal court dismissed a lawsuit that argued the U.S. Education Department was engaging in sexual discrimination against men in the way it was enforcing Title IX.
The National Wrestling Coaches Association and several other athletic groups sued the Education Department claiming that the department is using an illegal quota system that results […]
The University of Minnesota in April refused to allow junior Mary Nystrom to try out for a position as a kicker/punter for its football team, citing the lawsuit by Heather Mercer against Duke in justification.
Mercer was added to DUke’s football team in 1995. When she was cut by the team a year later, she […]
In 2001 Heather Mercer won a $2 million sex discrimination lawsuit against Duke University — Mercer successfully argued that when she was cut as a kicker from Duke’s football team, that the coach’s decision was motivated by her gender rather than her kicking ability. This month, however, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the […]
Josh Godbold is in an odd position — the 8th grader desperately wants to obtain some experience so that he can have a shot at trying out for a high school baseball team next year. There’s only one problem. The middle school Godbold attends has a girl’s softball team but no boy’s baseball team […]
In 1996, Smith College — an all women’s college that pioneered women’s sports, including holding the first women’s intercollegiate basketball game in 1893 — fired its basketball and soccer coach, Jim Babyak. In December, Babyak was awarded $1.6 million by a jury that agreed with his claims he had been fired because of his […]
The BBC reports that Muslim extremists in Kuwait are slamming a proposed women’s football tournament being organized by Kuwait University.
Abdullah al-Mutawa, head of Kuwait’s Muslim Brotherhood, said that the tournament would represent disobedience to God.
Conservative Member of Parliament Walid al-Tabtabai agreed, adding that allowing women to play such sports would “abuse the chastity and […]
When Heather Mercer won a $2 million judgment from Duke University, it was hailed as an important victory for women’s athletics. Instead it will likely shut the door for women who want to follow in Mercer’s footsteps.
Mercer wanted to be a kicker for Duke’s football team. She was given a tryout by the coach, […]