Biden Admin Calls Transgender Athletes in School Sports ‘Complicated’

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Tuesday said that the topic of transgender athletes in school sports is “complicated” during a press briefing.

The issue has, in recent years, generated some of the most heated back-and-forth and come under the most fire amid the U.S. right wing’s renewed push against LGBTQ rights. Spurred on by stories of trans athletes achieving considerable success in their sports, conservatives and other critics have called for the transgender community to be barred from competing outside the gender they were assigned at birth, in the name of fairness to cisgender competitors. The focus of the discussion has fallen disproportionately on trans women, who opponents argue have unfair physical advantages.

Advocates, meanwhile, have countered that such examples of trans athletes succeeding at such high levels are relatively rare and do not outweigh the need to respect the identities of trans people, with some also saying the issue distracts from graver injustices against the trans community. Some have also argued that the supposed physical advantages opponents claim that trans athletes possess are not universal.

The administration of President Joe Biden, alongside most of the Democratic Party, has aligned itself strongly in support of the rights of transgender people amid attacks from the Republican Party at all levels of government. Its response to the issue of trans athletes, however, has been trickier.

During Tuesday’s press briefing, Jean-Pierre was asked about the Biden administration’s stance on the subject of trans athletes in school sports, to which the press secretary said the issue is “complicated.”

“It is a complicated issue. It is truly a complicated issue, with a wide range of views, truly a wide range of views,” Jean-Pierre said. “There is no ‘yes or no’ answer to this, it is complicated. There is a rule that the Department of Education [DOE] has put forward, and we’re going to let that process move forward, and again, we want to make sure that while we establish guardrails with this rule, we also prevent discrimination, as well, against transgender kids. But again, a complicated issue with a wide range of views, and we respect that.”

Newsweek reached out to the White House press office via email on Tuesday for further comment.

In the spring, amid a wave of Republican-led state governments passing laws pertaining to trans students and sports, the Biden administration issued a change to Title IX, preventing schools from “categorically” banning trans students from competing on teams consistent with their gender, but also allowing for some leeway.

“The proposed rule also recognizes that in some instances, particularly in competitive high school and college athletic environments, some schools may adopt policies that limit transgender students’ participation,” a DOE statement read.

The change found little support on either side of the aisle, with Biden allies on the left coming down on the change particularly hard.

“Absolutely no reason for the Biden admin to do this,” New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote. “It is indefensible and embarrassing. The admin can still walk this back, and they should. It’s a disgrace.”

“Honestly, this move by Biden to push a rule on trans kids in sports is not only a backwards betrayal, it [forces] us to have to spend our time dealing with god dsports instead of criminal bans on our healthcare,” Alejandra Caraballo, a civil rights attorney and LGBTQ advocate, wrote. “He could have just done nothing. This is legitimizing transphobia.”