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Abstract: The number of students, in grades kindergarten through high school, who identify as transgender has steadily increased during the last decade. These students seek the same opportunities as their cisgender peers, but are often denied participation in athletic activities because of their non-conforming gender-behavior. Currently, there is no federal law governing transgender participation in sports, which has resulted in an inconsistency among state athletic associations' participation policies; the vast majority of states restricts participation. These states are limiting transgender students' ability to receive the benefits that sports provide. To solve this inconsistency and provide equal opportunity for transgender students, this Note argues that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 be amended to prohibit gender-based discrimination. As a supplementary solution, the U.S. Department of Education should recommend Congress pass a bill conditioning federal funding of state after-school sports programs on the inclusion of all students, including transgender students.

Introduction

Seventeen-year-old Alex Trujillo was just like any other young female athlete trying out for Laguna-Acoma High School's girls' volleyball team in Casa Blanca, New Mexico, but with one difference: she was born male.1 At a young age, Alex realized that although anatomically she was male, she did not identify as such.2 Instead, Alex identified as transgender.3

Around the age of three, Alex began expressing herself as female to her family by pretending to be Pocahontas and playing with young girls' toys, rather than participating in activities generally accepted as "male."4 In middle school, Alex struggled to find her self-identity, particularly because "transgender" was an unfamiliar and unknown concept within the small community in which she was raised.5 During the summer of 2013, between ninth and tenth grade, Alex decided to transition from male to female.6 Alex did not undergo a surgical procedure, nor did she take hormone treatments.7 Instead, like many young transgender children, she underwent an experiential transition, meaning she fully expressed herself to the public as female.8 The summer she decided to transition, Alex began to wear makeup, curl her eyelashes, and style her hair as a female.9 With her family's support, Alex grew more and more comfortable expressing herself as female.10 At school, however, Alex did not experience the same sort of compassion; she was prohibited from expressing her female identity.11 Alex turned...

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