Obama-appointed judge tosses female runner’s lawsuit about having to compete against male
Dismisses equal protection and Title IX claims
A Barack Obama-appointed judge has dismissed a lawsuit brought by a Pennsylvania female high school student who had to compete against a male in track and cross country.
Quakertown Community HS’s Aislin Magalengo initiated the suit in January against the Colonial School District and state athletic association for allowing Luce Allen, a biological male from a rival high school, to compete on the girls’ teams of those sports.
Magalengo contends letting Allen run against her violates her “equal protection of the laws” under the 14th Amendment in addition to her Title IX rights.
But District Court Judge Wendy Beetlestone disagreed, saying in her August 1 ruling Magalengo did not prove “she was the target of ‘purposeful’ discrimination,” The Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
Although Magalengo claimed “the inclusion of transgender girls in girls’ sports would ‘likely only impact girls,’ due to ‘inherent biological advantages’ held by students assigned male at birth” (the Inquirer‘s words), “Beetlestone said the Equal Protection Clause only prohibits intentional discrimination — not discrimination that could result from a policy having a disproportionate impact on a particular group.”
Which is an odd argument for an Obama judge to make considering that presidential administration’s legal takes.
Beetlestone (pictured) also dismissed Magalengo’s Title IX claims.
Magalengo lawyer Keith Altman said he’ll appeal: “We have a basic belief that you compete against your biology. The judge is ignoring biology. You just simply can’t.”Kristina Moon of the Education Law Center lauded Beetlestone’s decision, saying it “marked ‘a complete rejection to all the claims brought to a trans athlete competing in high school sports.’”
“The suggestion that … all trans students have some significant advantage just isn’t the reality of young people’s developmental stages and variations,” she said.
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Moon previously took issue with the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association’s revised rules regarding transgender athlete participation, saying they “scapegoat[ed] students who just want to be able to attend school, be themselves, and participate fully in school activities like everybody else.”
In March, Luce Allen’s parents told the PIAA that making their son run against other males would be “cruel.”
“My child is a female in her heart and soul, and according to her medical labs,” Allen’s mom said. She added Luce has been “on a journey for her to transition to the girl that she always has been” since age 15.
While [Magalengo] alleged that allowing transgender girls to participate on girls’ teams also enabled them to change in girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms, she didn’t claim that she had ever shared those spaces with a transgender girl, Beetlestone said.
Even if she had, the judge continued, the Third Circuit previously rejected that argument in a 2018 case involving the Boyertown Area School District in Berks County, where students said they were uncomfortable with transgender peers using restrooms of their choice.
In that ruling, Beetlestone noted, the court found that “the constitutional right to privacy is not absolute,” and because “transgender students face extraordinary social, psychological, and medical risks . . . , the School District clearly had a compelling state interest in shielding them from discrimination.”
Beetlestone also said Magalengo’s equal protection claim failed, because she had to show she was treated differently from members of a nonprotected class — in this case, male students.
Attorney Altman countered, saying “allowing transgender girls to participate in girls’ sports discriminates against boys, because ‘a boy who identifies as a boy cannot compete on a girls’ team. But a boy who identifies as a girl can.’”
Judge Beetlestone also recently dismissed the racial discrimination claims of Penn State professor Zack De Piero who said he had been “individually singled out for ridicule and humiliation because of the color of his skin” over disputes about DEI policies.
Beetlestone ruled “no reasonable jury” would agree with De Piero that the twelve incidents at issue — which included “training” sessions such as “White Teachers Are a Problem,” “The Myth of the Colorblind Classroom: White Instructors Confront White Privilege,” and a provost telling “non-black professors to hold their breath ‘a little bit longer’ to ‘feel the pain’ that George Floyd felt” — constitute a “hostile work environment.”
MORE: Professor says ‘no scientific answer as to what is fair’ re: trans-female athletes
IMAGE CAPTION & CREDIT: A judge makes her ruling; Anna Stills/Shutterstock.com. INTERIOR IMAGE: Wikipedia.
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