Commonwealth of Virginia
Office of the Attorney General
Jason S. Miyares
Attorney General
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Richmond, Virginia 23219
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Attorney General Miyares Finds Roanoke College Discriminated Against Female Athletes
RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares in the present day confirmed that following an investigation his Office of Civil Rights (Office) discovered affordable trigger that Roanoke College violated the Virginia Human Rights Act (VHRA) and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 by discriminating and retaliating towards feminine student-athletes on the idea of intercourse. That discovering has been made public by one of many swimmers.
“Women deserve an equal opportunity to participate in competitive sports,” stated Attorney General Jason Miyares. “That opportunity is protected by state and federal law. The Roanoke women swimmers endured harassment, discrimination, and retaliation just for standing up for their right to compete. My Office will keep working to ensure equal opportunities for female athletes in sex-separated collegiate sports.”
In August 2023, Roanoke College informed the ladies’s swim staff {that a} organic male was becoming a member of their staff. The swimmer had been a member of the Roanoke College males’s swim staff, and underwent hormone remedy to fulfill the National Collegiate Athletics Association’s (NCAA) then-existing anti-competitive tips. The ladies’s swim staff unanimously objected, stating that it could not be truthful to compete towards a postpubescent organic male.
In the next weeks, the male swimmer dominated the feminine swimmers’ occasions and skipped practices, itself a privilege not granted to others. Demoralized by the disparities in remedy and expectations, the feminine swimmers met repeatedly with the Athletic Director and wrote letters to the College’s administration to voice their objections to having to compete with and towards a swimmer with all of the athletic benefits of a postpubescent male. However, Roanoke College ignored their objections, saved the male swimmer on the ladies’s staff, and refused to vary its discriminatory coverage. Then, when the ladies publicly spoke out towards the College and its coverage, Roanoke College retaliated towards them by denying a number of feminine swimmers’ purposes for a study-abroad program.
The VHRA prohibits illegal discrimination and retaliation by academic establishments on the idea of intercourse. The Office discovered affordable trigger that Roanoke College’s coverage of permitting post-pubescent males to compete towards ladies in sex-separated collegiate sports activities violates the VHRA. The Office additionally discovered affordable trigger that Roanoke denied the feminine swimmers privileges granted to the male swimmer and retaliated towards them for objecting to the coverage by depriving them of study-abroad alternatives. These actions additionally violate Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.
Watch the complete press convention here.
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