Shane Windmeyer on Title IX Exemptions: The Harm to LGBTQ+ Athletes and Students

In a powerful Op-Ed for Outsports, civil rights advocate and DEI strategist Shane Windmeyer lays bare the human cost of Title IX religious exemptions when they are used to justify discrimination against LGBTQ+ students and athletes. His essay sheds light on how a law originally designed to dismantle sex-based discrimination is being warped into a tool for exclusion — leaving some of the most vulnerable students behind.

What Title IX Was Meant to Do

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 was enacted to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex in educational programs or activities that receive federal funding. Originally, its intent was to ensure that no student would be deterred from participation, denied benefits, or subjected to discrimination simply because of their sex.

Over time, Title IX has become synonymous with expanded opportunity, especially in athletics where schools are required to offer equal opportunity and treatment to male and female athletes.

What many do not realize, however, is that the law also includes a provision allowing certain institutions — particularly religious ones — to claim exemptions to specific requirements of Title IX.

From Protection to Exemption: How Title IX Is Being Misused

In his Outsports Op-Ed, Shane Windmeyer argues that these exemptions were originally intended as limited safeguards for religious freedom. But today, they are being exploited to justify discrimination against LGBTQ+ students — including promising student-athletes — under the guise of “religious belief.”

Windmeyer centers the story of Marcus Hansen, a standout defensive end who was allegedly removed from the Harding University football team after coaches discovered he is gay. Marcus, who excelled on the field and in the classroom, had no idea Harding operated with a Title IX religious exemption that allows it to discriminate against LGBTQ+ students.

What is most troubling, Windmeyer notes, is that institutions are not required to disclose these exemptions to students or families during recruitment, housing assignments, athletics commitments, or financial aid offers — leaving many young people blindsided when they arrive on campus.

The Real Human Cost

The impact of this misuse isn’t just legal or philosophical — it’s deeply personal. Windmeyer emphasizes that when LGBTQ+ students are forced to hide their identities or risk losing scholarships, housing, and academic opportunities, colleges become places of fear rather than growth. Many students transfer, abandon their degrees, or drop out entirely, undermining not only their education but also their physical and mental well-being.

Athletic participation adds an extra layer of consequence. For student-athletes, playing sports is often tied to financial aid, housing, healthcare access, even future career opportunities. Being excluded means not just losing a team spot — it means losing a future.

Why This Matters Now

This moment in higher education is particularly dangerous for LGBTQ+ students, Windmeyer writes. Nationwide, LGBTQ resource centers are closing on campuses, safe spaces are disappearing, and mental-health pressures are rising. Without basic protections, students are effectively forced back into silence and invisibility in order to stay enrolled.

Further complicating the landscape is the fact that Title IX itself has been subject to shifting federal interpretations. While recent federal guidance has expanded protections to include sexual orientation and gender identity as a form of sex discrimination, enforcement is inconsistent and politically fraught, and exemptions remain a major loophole.

Religious exemptions have been granted to roughly two hundred private colleges — many of which still receive federal funding — allowing them to sidestep key Title IX protections. These waivers can encompass admissions, housing, financial aid, and especially athletics — an area Windmeyer underscores as essential to student opportunity.

The Call to Action

Windmeyer’s Op-Ed is more than a recounting of injustice — it is a call to action. He argues that it is no longer acceptable for taxpayer-funded discrimination to hide behind religious exemption claims. Instead, he urges:

1. Full disclosure of Title IX exemptions to students and families before enrollment.
2. Protections for LGBTQ+ athletes that cannot be overridden by institutional exemptions.
3. Public accountability for institutions that use federal law to harm students.
4. A renewed commitment to believing that discrimination — in athletics or academics — should not be shielded by doctrine.

For Windmeyer, religious belief is deeply personal — but discrimination is not doctrine. No single institution’s interpretation of faith should dictate whether a student is afforded dignity, safety, and equal opportunity.

A Broader Civil Rights Perspective

Under long-standing Department of Education interpretation, Title IX’s protections against sex discrimination have included protections for gender identity and sexual orientation. This means that denying equal athletic participation or educational opportunity on the basis of LGBTQ+ status can be viewed as discriminatory under Title IX’s mandate that schools “may not... discriminate on the basis of sex.”

Yet, as Windmeyer highlights, the existence of exemptions creates a patchwork of rights that varies widely across colleges. Students at public institutions or non-exempt private schools may enjoy robust protections, while those at exempt schools are left unprotected despite attending taxpayer-supported institutions.

Conclusion: Inclusion Is Not a Luxury

In his Outsports commentary, Shane Windmeyer makes a compelling case that Title IX’s religious exemptions have moved far beyond their original scope and are now being used in ways that directly harm LGBTQ+ students and athletes. His call for transparency, accountability, and rights protection is rooted in decades of experience advocating for inclusive and equitable educational environments.

As the national debate over equity in education and athletics continues, Windmeyer’s voice underscores a fundamental truth: equal opportunity should not be contingent on where a student enrolls or which institution’s religious beliefs are invoked. If education and athletic participation are truly meant to be open to all — as Title IX envisioned — then discriminatory exemptions must be exposed, challenged, and ultimately reformed.