On Friday, the Biden administration expanded the definition of sex to include transgender with its updated Title IX rules.
The new rules, which only pertain to discrimination and sexual harassment portions of Title IX, expand protections for LGBTQ+ and pregnant students while overhauling the guidance from the Trump era about how schools should approach and handle cases of sexual assault.
The new rules go into effect August 1.
Title IX is the 1972 law that prohibits discrimination based on sex in educational programs that receive federal funding.
According to a New York Times report, the administration avoided the issue of whether transgender students should be able to play on school sports teams that correspond to their gender identity.
An open rulemaking process is set to address the issue. The new sports rules aren’t likely to be finalized until after the 2024 election, reported the Washington Examiner.
The updated rules follow the 2020 Bostock v. Clayton County Supreme Court decision in which Neil Gorsuch, a Trump-appointed justice, included transgenderism and sexual orientation under “sex” in federal discrimination law.
President Joe Biden then issued an executive day-one order that required the entire federal government to apply the Bostock decision to everything it did.
“For over half a century, Title IX has opened doors, expanded access, and promised fairness. Before Title IX was passed in 1972, women and girls didn’t have equal access to education in this country,” said Miguel Cardona, Education Secretary, on a call with reporters Thursday night, reported the Examiner. “That was unacceptable then, and it’s unfathomable now. Title IX promises that no person experiences sex discrimination, including sex-based harassment or sexual violence in federally funded education.”
Critics say Title IX will be rendered meaningless if men are allowed to participate
Critics argue Title IX will be ultimately rendered meaningless if men are permitted to participate in women’s sports.
“The Department of Education has placed Title IX, and the decades of advancement and protections for women and girls that it has yielded squarely on the chopping block,” said chairwoman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, GOP representative Virginia Foxx of North Carolina.
“This final rule dumps kerosene on the already raging fire that is Democrats’ contemptuous culture war that aims to radically redefine sex and gender. The rule also undermines existing due process rights, placing students and institutions in legal jeopardy and again undermining the protections Title IX is intended to provide. Evidently, the acceptance of biological reality and the faithful implementation of the law are just pills too big for the Department to swallow — and it shows,” Foxx continued.
