The U.S. Education Department Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has agreed to investigate a Connecticut transgender school athletic policy that allows biological males who claim to be female to compete against biological female athletes.

In a letter to Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the non-profit legal firm representing three female athletes, OCR granted the request to investigate the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) which adopted the policy allowing transgender biological males claiming to be female to compete in the girls’ athletic events.

Since CIAC adopted its policy, the biological males have defeated Selina Soule and two other female athletes, causing them to lose awards and opportunities to advance to elite levels.

ADF said the CIAC policy essentially “abolishes girls-only sports”:

The CIAC policy regularly results in boys out-performing and displacing girls in competitive high-school track events across Connecticut. Throughout the 2018-19 track season, males consistently deprived the female athletes who are part of the complaint of multiple medals, opportunities to compete at a higher level, and the public recognition critical to college recruiting and scholarship opportunities. The complaint notes that CIAC’s policy and its results directly violated the requirements of Title IX, a federal law designed to protect equal athletic opportunities for women and girls.

“The CIAC is committed to equity in providing opportunities to student athletes in Connecticut,” CIAC executive director Greg Lungarini said in a statement to the Hartford Courantin June. “We take such matters seriously, and we believe that the current CIAC policy is appropriate under both Connecticut law and Title IX.”

Connecticut is among 17 states that allow high school athletes who claim to be the opposite gender to compete without restrictions, according to Transathlete.com, reports the Associated Press.

ADF, however, says the CIAC policy undermines women in athletic competition.

“Female athletes deserve to compete on a level playing field,” said ADF Legal Counsel Christiana Holcomb. “Forcing them to compete against boys makes them spectators in their own sports, which is grossly unfair and destroys their athletic opportunities.” “

Holcomb described the irony of the CIAC policy that claims to fulfill the goals of the federal Title IX law.

“Title IX is a federal law that was designed to eliminate discrimination against women in education and athletics, and women fought long and hard to earn the equal athletic opportunities that Title IX provides,” she said. “Allowing boys to compete in girls’ sports reverses nearly 50 years of advances for women.”

Results of a new study found that male athletes claiming to be female do hold what the researchers called an “intolerable” advantage over biological females.

Professors in bioethics and physiology observed that while the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is allowing “transgender women” (biological males) to compete against biological females if their testosterone is below 10 nmol/L, even that level is “significantly higher” than that of biological females.

The authors cited research demonstrating that “healthy young men did not lose significant muscle mass (or power) when their circulating testosterone levels were reduced” for 20 weeks to meet the IOC’s guidelines.

The researchers also stated that “indirect effects of testosterone will not be altered by hormone therapy.”

“For example, hormone therapy will not alter bone structure, lung volume or heart size of the transwoman athlete, especially if she transitions postpuberty, so natural advantages including joint articulation, stroke volume and maximal oxygen uptake will be maintained,” they explained.

“We conclude that the advantage to transwomen afforded by the IOC guidelines is an intolerable unfairness,” the professors said.