Federal agency: Athletes must compete as birth gender

OLYMPIA — A U.S. Department of Education ruling could effect scholastic sports in Washington's middle and high schools and colleges.

In a ruling Thursday, May 28, the agency found that a Connecticut policy that allows transgender athletes to compete as the opposite sex is a violation of the federal Title IX laws requiring equal opportunity for boys and girls to compete in scholastic sports.

The finding threatens funding to schools and related athletic programs that allow boys who "gender identify" as girls to compete in female-designated sports.

The agency determined that allowing birth-gender...