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EXCLUSIVE: Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares released his findings of an investigation into Roanoke College, Fox News Digital learned on Monday.
Miyares’ investigation was in response to a biological male transgender swimmer that competed on Roanoke’s women’s team in 2023. Miyares concluded that the college denied the female swimmers accommodations, advantages, and privileges on the basis of sex, caused the women emotional, physical, and dignitary harms and violated the Virginia Human Rights Act (VHRA).
Miyares also suggested the female swimmers who were discriminated against are eligible to seek financial damages because the school’s policy violated the VHRA, as per state code.
“A private complainant who has received a notice of right to file a civil action may file a civil action under the Act for compensatory and punitive damages, as well as injunctive relief,” the report said.
There is currently no recorded instance of a college or university in the U.S. having to pay financial damages to women’s athletes for putting a male on their sports team. There are lawsuits over similar situations in progress that are seeking financial damages, but none have advanced to the point of any damages being paid out.
Documents obtained by Fox News Digital stated that six female swimmers on the Roanoke College team applied for May Term Travel Courses run by the school three days before a press conference took place in which some expressed their displeasure with having a transgender swimmer on their team.
“Two weeks after the press conference, the Roanoke professors in charge of the Japan and Greece travel terms rejected the female swimmers’ applications,” Miyares’ findings said.
The documents noted that the VHRA barred “unlawful discrimination and retaliation by educational institutions on the basis of sex” and that “No educational institution may “refuse, withhold from, or deny” any accommodations, advantages, or privileges on the basis of sex.” Any implementation of a discriminatory policy would be considered discrimination under the law.
The Office of the Attorney General of Virginia, therefore, said that Roanoke College’s policy “that forces women participating in sex-separated collegiate sports to compete against individuals with the biological advantages of male puberty deprives those women of accommodations, advantages, and privileges made available to others on the basis of sex and violates the VHRA.” Additionally, allowing biological males to compete against females discriminates against females and that the VHRA would prevent biological males from competing against females at the collegiate level.
Fox News Digital reached out to Roanoke College for comment.
The 2023 Roanoke women’s swimming season was rocked by a months-long conflict between the players and administration over the presence of the trans athlete. The controversy culminated in a news conference in October of that year, when multiple women’s swimmers on the team spoke out about their experience publicly.
The athletes who spoke out originally alleged they felt pressured by the school to support the transgender swimmer because the trans athlete expressed potential suicidal tendencies in response to opposition. The female swimmers alleged that team coaches held a meeting where the athletes voted in an online poll about whether to allow the athlete, who was in the same room, to stay on the team. The vote passed, but the women allege some of them voted “yes” out of pressure to do so.
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The college released a statement that same week, in which President Frank Shushok Jr. expressed support for the school’s LGBT community.
“In making this decision, the focus of senior administration and the board of trustees was on maintaining fairness in competition and protecting the integrity of all athletics at Roanoke College,” Shushok said in the Oct. 5, 2023 statement. “We remain committed to supporting our LGBTQ+ community and our student-athletes, all of whom are valued members of our vibrant community.”
The incident came just more that one year after Lia Thomas competed in the NCAA championships for the University of Pennsylvania, and was compared to the Thomas controversy. Five of the Roanake women’s swimmers joined the current lawsuit against the NCAA led by Riley Gaines, citing their experience in 2023.
In the days leading up to President Donald Trump’s election victory last October, multiple Roanoke swimmers joined him at a rally in Salem, Virginia, to share their story and advocate for laws protecting women and girls from trans athlete inclusion in sports.
Now, Miyares’ findings could be consequential in that lawsuit and the larger overall political and legal conflict in the U.S. over trans athletes in women’s sports.
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