Title IX and Thinking of Yourself as An Athlete

The end of June is a funny time with respect to momentous legal moments. Today is the ten-year anniversary of the Obergefell Supreme Court decision that established same-sex marriage as a fundamental right under the Constitution.

Two days ago was the 3-year anniversary of the Dobbs decision that took away a fundamental right to reproductive choice and healthcare that American women held for 50 years. That decision overturned 50 years of precedent and emphasized to all that Supreme Court interpretation, in the most contentious cases, boils down to the views of a majority of whoever has been placed on the Court.

And three days ago was the 53rd anniversary of my favorite law, which forced the doors open for women in education and sports.

That law still IS Title IX. This is an excerpt from a longer comic explaining the law.

As Title IX approached its 50th birthday, I started interviewing women I knew about their interaction with sports. I was fascinated by the fact that the impact of Title IX varied based on when you were born. For me, it was so impactful that I had no concept of girls’ sports being anything other than full of opportunity. For one of my tennis buddies, it didn’t come soon enough—she had to sue to be allowed to play on the boys high school team.

In honor of the anniversary three days ago, I want to share one of these interviews that did make its way into a comic form.

Cheers to Lisa the athlete! I love this story because it points out how not everyone who was missed by Title IX was going to just play sports anyway, Billie Jean King style. That’s exactly why this law has been so impactful—it opened the doors for every girl to be able to see herself as an athlete, from a young age.

Thank you for reading!