The DOE is using Title IX to attack a women's college for admitting trans women

The Trump Department of Education just opened a Title IX investigation into Smith College. A women's college. Their argument: admitting trans women violates women's rights.

Think about that for a second. The same administration that has spent four years dismantling every civil-rights protection it could find is now suddenly very concerned about discrimination against women. The Office for Civil Rights — OCR — is arguing that Smith's single-sex status depends on biological sex, and that admitting trans women would strip the school of its Title IX exemption. Legal experts are already saying OCR may be misreading its own statute. Associate Dean Erin Buzuvis told reporters the probe "either reflects ignorance of the law" or is aimed at "a splashy headline" targeting a "liberal elite college." The private undergraduate admissions exception exists in Title IX precisely for this situation. OCR's own guidance says the prohibition on admissions discrimination doesn't apply to private undergraduate colleges.

The complaint was filed by Defending Education, a conservative watchdog. Smith announced it would admit transgender women more than a decade ago. None of that is new. What's new is an administration that needed a headline. They don't care about women. If they cared about women they wouldn't be gutting Title IX everywhere else. They care about a news cycle that hurts trans people and makes the word "women's college" do political work for them. Students on campus called it cruel and ironic. They're right.