The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced on Monday that it has opened a Title IX sex-discrimination investigation of Smith College for admitting transgender women to the all-women's school. The DOE announcement said in part:
Today, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) opened an investigation into Smith College, one of the nation’s largest all-women's colleges, for admitting biological men and granting them access to women-only spaces, including dormitories, bathrooms, locker rooms, and athletic teams....
Title IX contains a single-sex exception that allows colleges to enroll all-male or all-female student bodies—but the exception applies on the basis of biological sex difference, not subjective gender identity. An all-girls college that enrolls male students professing a female identity would cease to qualify as single sex under Title IX.
When an institution holds itself out as being an all-women’s college, it is not just promising to deliver female-only dorms and bathrooms, and single-sex athletics; it is also committing to maintain a student body that makes possible a particular form of sorority and camaraderie....
The investigation stems from a civil rights complaint filed last year by the advocacy organization Defending Education. Politico reports on the Department's action.