Title IX is not equal

Title IX is not “gender-neutral,” as Gov. Chris Gregoire and Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles said in their recent column editorial. [“Title IX: celebration and challenge,” June 23].

Rather, it’s gender-specific — a quota system that allots athletic money according to gender, not merit. This penalizes boys who want to play sports, but aren’t good enough to make the limited-number roster of a boys-only team. They sit on the sidelines watching well-funded girls have fun, knowing that they could be playing on that very team, except for one little problem — they’re the wrong gender.

I suppose we could let boys and girls duke it out for playing time on a level playing field, but — since boys are generally bigger, stronger and faster — the practical result would be that fewer girls would thrive.

A better system would give athletic money equally to every interested child, without regard to gender; any child who wanted to play would get the same dollar amount. They could choose from a wide variety of sports — boys-only, girls-only, or coed — that fit their interest and skill level, not their gender.

— Gene Openshaw, Edmonds