Advocates on both sides of the debate on whether to allow transgender students to join in K-12 and college sports inundated the Education Department with more than 150,000 comments ahead of a deadline Monday to weigh in on its plan for regulating such participation.
The department’s proposed rule would allow schools to ban transgender and nonbinary students from participating in sports on a case-by-case basis, infuriating advocates for their participation. They worry that leaves too much room to discriminate against students. But that they would be allowed to join the swim, wrestling or football teams that align with their gender identity in any scenario enraged others who weighed in.