The Dam Truth: Obama’s legacy of empowering female athletes must not be left behind

Few presidents have supported or done more for female athletes than former President Barack Obama.

This is not an alternative fact.

Obama told the world: “Playing like a girl means you’re a badass,” and there were plenty such badasses while he was in office.

American women dominated the Olympics – outnumbering and winning more medals than their male counterparts – won the World Cup and made monumental strides across the major professional leagues.

You can attribute this to the former president’s consistent support of Title IX.

As much as the person currently in the White House will try to tear down Obama’s legacy any way he can, the changes Obama enacted under Title IX are indelible and should continue no matter which party is in power.

[Related: Dismissing misogyny as ‘locker room talk’ perpetuates prejudice]

Former President George W. Bush’s education department interpreted Title IX such that “schools could simply use an e-mail survey to gauge the interest or athletic ability of female students.”

Obama reversed this policy in 2010, and by 2013, nearly 4000 complaints were made alleging “disparities in athletic opportunities” because people were more vigilant against inequality.

This means schools, rather than the students themselves, have a greater responsibility to insure and prove there is complete equality on campus.

From defending athletes of all genders and orientations to protecting students from sexual assault and harassment, the Obama administration ushered in an era of unparalleled progress.

Legislation like North Carolina’s “bathroom bill,” which forces people to use the public restroom that matches the sex on their birth certificates regardless of their gender identities, is no longer acceptable.

States like California and New York have restricted state agencies like public schools from traveling to North Carolina or Tennessee because of the discrimination any athletes and others could possibly experience.

The openness that the former president encouraged trickled down to these athletes and coaches.

It changed the norm.

This new administration, instead of focusing on picking up where Obama left off, intends to employ a woman who’s adamant about having guns in schools to protect students from any stray grizzly bears. Let’s instead protect students from bigotry, sexism and inequality.

Let’s focus on creating more and more of those badass athletes who will, as Obama said in a 2012 op-ed, “hear more voices that say ‘you can’ rather than ‘you can’t.'”