CHARLESTON — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey celebrated the 50th anniversary of Title IX at the West Virginia State Capitol, saying he would continue to fight for the equality of women's sports.
"The impetus for calling this event today is because this is the 50th anniversary of Title IX," Morrisey said June 21 to those in attendance. "I remember growing up, I was born in 1967, and I remember the first few years in the 1970s always reading about Title IX."
Morrisey said Title IX was used to drive the creation of many women's sports teams over a period of time.
"Title IX's regulations made it clear that you could have separate teams for members of each sex when the teams are based on competitive skill and contact sports," Morrisey said. "That's exactly how it's stated in the statutory language. Now, the impact of Title IX on women's sports has been profound. Before the law, just one in 27 women played sports. Today that figure is two in five."
Morrisey said women playing college sports has increased more than 600% since Title IX's beginnings.
"Women now make up over 44 percent of all NCAA student-athletes," Morrisey said. "Because of Title IX, we're a far cry from 1971 when less than 30,000 women play college sports. They made up 15 percent of the college athletes at that level."
Morrisey said the state will "strenuously defend the changes and opportunities that have been created over the last half-century."
"That means keeping sports fair and safe for athletes of both sexes," Morrisey said. "That means keeping the sexes separated. We've seen what happens when biological men have participated in women's competitions. The females have been denied opportunities to shine. When a biological male wins in the women's event, that takes away an opportunity for a female. That's unfortunate."
Morrisey said because of Title IX and equality in women and girls' sports are why his office intervened to defend the law that the legislature passed, House Bill 3293.
"I supported the law that came through in 2021 because I thought it was a commonsense measure and it was meant to preserve the status quo that was created by Title IX," Morrisey said.
On April 28, 2021, the state enacted the law, which was designed to maintain the integrity of girls' and women’s sports in both secondary and post-secondary public schools.
"We're confident that we're correct in the law," Morrisey said. "Whatever happens in court, we feel very good about the legal arguments that we've been putting through. But, we are also confident in the belief that this helps us to defend Title IX and the integrity of women's sports. The data is on our side. Athletic statistics show that biological boys even before puberty are faster and stronger than biological girls."
On May 26, 2021, the ACLU and Cooley LLP filed a lawsuit on behalf of a Bridgeport middle schooler seeking to invalidate this law. Morrisey intervened in the case. The case is scheduled to go to trial at the end of July and is expected to last four days.
"We are preparing a record that is second to none," Morrisey said. "This should be the first case across the line that gets heard within the district court and then we expect that will likely go up to the Fourth Circuit and potentially up to the U.S. Supreme Court as well."
The parties in the lawsuit have filed motions for summary judgment but the judge has not ruled on those motions yet.
"Opportunities for girls and women on the field are precious," Morrisey said. "We must honor and defend the success of Title IX to guarantee its benefits flow to the generations of girls and women to come."
Title IX was signed into law on June 23, 1972, by President Richard Nixon. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other education program that receives funding from the federal government.
State Del. Margitta Mazzocchi, West Virginia State University alum and women's soccer player Lainey Armistead and her attorney, Christiana Kiefer were all in attendance for the event.
