Mike Dorf writes about the DoE investigation of Smith College for admitting trans women. Mike points out something I had forgotten: Title IX does not apply to private undergrad institutions. This allowed HWCs to continue to exist but also to define who they wish to admit. A school does not violate Title IX by admitting only cis-women or by admitting women but defining women however it wished or by admitting everyone but cis men. Smith thus did not violate Title IX by admitting what the bigots at DoE call “biological men.” The anti-trans privacy concerns DoE then cites (bathrooms, athletics, etc.) are no different at Smith than at any other college anywhere, single-sex or co-ed.
Mike then ponders why DoE decided to go after Smith, offering this: “not because the presence of trans students makes its cis students uncomfortable in any way but precisely for the opposite reason–that Smith and Northampton, Massachusetts present an especially welcoming environment for LGBTQ+ persons.” A related take: Smith is the highest-ranked and highest-profile of the three Seven Sisters (the others are Mount Holyoke and Bryn Mawr) that admit trans-women. More people have heard of Smith than the other two, just as more people have heard of Penn and Harvard.