USCA11 Case: 18-13592 Document: 304-1 Date Filed: 12/30/2022 Page: 38 of 150
fecundating function of generation”); Sex, Webster’s New World Dictionary (1972) (“[E]ither of the two divisions, male or female, into which persons, animals, or plants are divided, with reference to their reproductive functions.”); Sex, Female, Male, Webster’s Seventh New Collegiate Dictionary (1969) (defining “sex” as “either of two divisions of organisms distinguished respectively as male or female,” “female” as “an individual that bears young or produces eggs as distinguished from one that begets young,” and “male” as “of, relating to, or being the sex that begets young by performing the fertilizing function”); Sex, Random House College Dictionary (rev. ed. 1980) (“[E]ither the male or female division of a species, esp. as differentiated with reference to the reproductive functions.”).
The district court found “sex” to be “ambiguous as applied to transgender students,” due to lack of explicit definition in either Title IX or its implementing regulations. And in deciding that “sex” was an ambiguous term, it noted that other courts, including the majority in Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board, “did not find the meaning [of ‘sex’] to be so universally clear” under Title IX drafting-era dictionary definitions. But the district court mentioned only one dictionary definition—the American College Dictionary (1970), defining “sex” as “the character of being either male or female”—to support its conclusion that “sex” was an ambiguous term at the time of Title IX’s enactment.
In the face of the overwhelming majority of dictionaries defining “sex” on the basis of biology and reproductive function, the
