Women’s college faces federal complaint for admitting males

One of the largest all-women colleges in the U.S. faces a civil rights complaint accusing the school of admitting males who identify as women over female applicants, among other alleged Title IX violations.

The watchdog group Defending Education filed a complaint on June 20 against Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, through the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. 

Defending Education urged the department to investigate the private liberal arts women’s college for discrimination based on sex, saying that the school violates Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Title IX is a rule intended to prevent discrimination against women in programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance. 

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Smith College did not immediately respond to The Christian Post’s request for comment. 

The complaint accused Smith College of defying guidance from President Donald Trump’s administration by reinterpreting Title IX to include “gender identity” discrimination, despite legal rulings and the Department of Education clarifying that Title IX does not include gender identity. 

“Discrimination based on gender identity is not the same as discrimination based on sex under Title IX, as this Department well knows, and the Supreme Court has never held it is,” Sarah Parshall Perry, vice president and legal fellow at Defending Education, wrote in the complaint. 

“In other words, to the extent Smith’s accommodations for so-called gender identity encroach upon sex-specific programs and spaces, it is in violation of Title IX,” Perry continued. 

Perry noted that Smith College’s admissions policy also violates Title IX, as the school, which is supposed to be a women-only college, gives spots to men who identify as female.

On its website, Smith College says that individuals “who identify as women — cis, trans and nonbinary women — are eligible to apply to Smith.”

“Smith’s policy is one of self-identification,” the college explains. “The applicant’s affirmation of identity is sufficient.”

In 2015, the Smith College Board of Trustees clarified the school’s undergraduate admissions policy to include men who identify as women. The policy change resulted from the board and an appointed Admission Policy Study Group reviewing the school’s admission policy “in light of society’s evolving understanding of gender.”

The watchdog group’s complaint also drew attention to Smith College’s policies related to women’s bathrooms and locker rooms, noting that the school boasts that “[e]very single occupancy restroom on campus is designated all-gender, and more and more multi-stall bathrooms are as well.”

“The college also advertises ‘[a]n all-gender locker room in the athletic facilities,’ and the college’s Health & Wellness Center ‘provides trans-affirming primary care, including hormone therapy,'” the complaint stated. 

In addition to advertising that it helps students “of all identities” access contraceptives and abortions, Smith College lists so-called “gender affirming care” on its “Medical Services” webpage. The Schacht Center for Health and Wellness initiates or continues a student’s “hormone therapy” and offers referrals for sex-change surgeries, among other services. 

Smith College’s independent, student-run newspaper reported in February that the school would abide by Massachusetts law instead of federal directives and continue providing “gender-affirming primary care.”

Defending Education called on the Department of Education to investigate the allegations in its complaint and that the administration “act swiftly to remedy unlawful policies and practices, and order appropriate relief.”

“At a minimum, then, Smith’s gender-identity-based Equal Opportunity Policy; its admissions policy, which accepts natal men in lieu of similarly situated female applicants; and its all-gender restroom and locker room policies, which divest female students of their privacy, safety, and equal educational opportunity, all appear to violate Title IX,” the complaint stated. 

Smith College’s stance on the issue of gender identity made headlines in May after it awarded an honorary degree to former U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health Rachel (Richard) Levine. The school praised the trans-identifying man for his work as an “accomplished physician, public health expert, and LGBTQ+ advocate.”

The decision to honor Levine drew condemnation from the feminist organization Women’s Declaration International, which then held a protest in Northampton in response.