(Headline USA) Education Secretary Miguel Cardona repeatedly refused to define what a woman is during a congressional hearing on Tuesday.
The House Appropriations Committee hearing, which focused primarily on the Education Department’s proposed budget, veered into cultural issues when Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., asked Cardona to define what a woman is.
“Our focus at the department is to provide equal access to students, including students who are LGBTQ, access free from discrimination,” Cardona replied.
Clyde continued to press Cardona: “What’s the definition of a woman?”
“I think that’s almost secondary to the important role that I have as secretary of education,” Cardona replied, again refusing to answer the question.
When asked a third time, Cardona replied: “My job is to make sure that all students have access to public education.”
Cardona also refused to say whether he agreed or disagreed with the statement, “A biological male who self-identifies as a woman should be allowed to compete in women’s sports,” instead saying that “all students” should have access to school sports.
The Education Department, however, has made it clear through a number of regulations that it has embraced gender ideology. A recent Title IX rule change, for example, would forbid schools from implementing a “one size fits all” prohibiting biological males who identify as girls from competing on girls’ sports teams. Schools can still impose restrictions on participation in athletics, but must “minimize harms” to the students who are excluded. In other words, schools will never be allowed to ban transgender students from sports.
Clyde derided the Biden administration proposal on Tuesday as an attempt to “weaponize Title IX” in a way that “endangers women.”
“Through the Department of Education, President Biden, in my opinion, is attempting to weaponize Title IX, morphing it from a law that protects women to a law that disadvantages or endangers women. Further, the department is doing so with taxpayer dollars, an action that spotlights were your and your president’s true priorities lie in my opinion,” Clyde said in a statement.
