For thousands of students beginning a new school year in more than 20 states, simple biological facts and rules of grammar are being expelled from the classroom.
On Aug. 1, the Biden administration’s unilateral revision of Title IX—a law ratified by Congress in 1972 to ban discrimination in federally-funded education programs on the basis of a person’s sex—is set to take effect. The changes to the law effectively redefine in public policy what it means to be male or female to include “gender identity” and the plethora of supposed sexual categories related to it.
Consequently, students’ rights to privacy and safety in restrooms and locker rooms, as well as freedom from coerced speech, are being overridden by a small percentage of sexually confused peers who are being cheered on and exploited by LGBTQ special interests and the federal government.
Students most vulnerable to the Biden administration’s transgender ideology indoctrination campaign seem to be in places where governments are defending Title IX revisions in court: California, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. And other states that aren’t challenging the policy changes include: Arizona, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina and Wisconsin, as well as Puerto Rico.
A number of states, however, have stood up, refusing to abide by the federal Department of Education’s gender ideology edict. Twenty-six attorneys general and multiple nonprofits, school boards, and parents’ groups have filed lawsuits opposing the Title IX policy change.
Two recent rulings by federal judges in Louisiana and Kentucky prevent gender identity and sexual orientation from being added to Title IX sex discrimination protections. The Louisiana ruling also affected Mississippi, Montana and Idaho. And the Kentucky ruling also impacted Tennessee, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia. Other federal court rulings around the country are looming as well.
In addition to the 26 states, one school district, two students, and five conservative advocacy organizations have signed onto the legal challenges. Other states where the Title IX policy changes are on hold—Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming—are the states that signed onto the four lawsuits so far in which judges have issued injunction orders temporarily blocking the rule while the cases play out in court.
A ruling July 2 in Kansas by U.S. District Judge John Broomes blocks the Title IX revisions in more than 2,000 schools across 45 states where a student specifically has a parent who belongs to Moms for Liberty, a parental rights advocacy organization that signed onto the legal challenges.
U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, who granted the preliminary injunction on June 13 in Louisiana, referred to the Biden administration’s unilateral Title IX changes as a “threat to democracy.”
“This case demonstrates the abuse of power by executive federal agencies in the rulemaking process,” Doughty said in his ruling. “The separation of powers and system of checks and balances exist in this country for a reason.”
Meanwhile, dozens of states have passed laws to defy the gender identity protections added to the Title IX policy and to prevent males from competing in girls’ sports and using female restrooms and locker rooms.
Family Research Council’s Meg Kilgannon told The Washington Stand that Christians can be thankful for the brave men and women across the country who refuse to watch their daughters sacrificed on Biden’s altar to transgenderism.
“I am so grateful to those who have filed lawsuits and those who will do so,” she said. “The Biden administration is trying to force California/Oregon/Washington-style progressivism on states like Texas, Alabama, Florida, and Louisiana,” Kilgannon argued. “The left-wing states that have already adopted dangerous and sexist practices like those mandated by the Biden administration will not have to worry about losing federal funding. States that refuse to kowtow to LGBT, Inc., are the ones in jeopardy,” she warned.
One of those chief law enforcers, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, cheered the Louisiana ruling as “a victory against government overreach.”
“Joe Biden’s unlawful effort to weaponize Title IX for his extremist agenda has been stopped in its tracks,” he said in a press release. “Threatening to withhold education funding by forcing states to accept ‘transgender’ policies that put women in danger was plainly illegal.”
And Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders stated in a recent press conference: “If President Biden threatens our state with loss of educational funding because we refuse to go along with his election-year pandering, Arkansas will take the federal government to court.”
When Title IX was signed into law by President Richard Nixon in 1972, it banned sex discrimination in college admissions and prohibited sexual harassment on campuses while allowing greater access to financial assistance for women pursuing higher education.
For example, since 1968 the percentage of women between the ages of 25 and 34 with a college degree has more than tripled.
And since the law’s passage 52 years ago, women have made great strides in closing the gap between male and female participation in school sports programs. According to the Women’s Sports Foundation, in 1972 boys outnumbered girls in high school sports by more than a 12-to-1 ratio. But five decades later, the ratio is 4 to 3. Similarly, collegiate athletics in the early 1970s saw male athletes outnumber female athletes 6 to 1. In 2022, the ratio was 4 to 3.
But fairness and safety in women’s sports is increasingly compromised as male athletes identifying as female are winning high school and collegiate athletic championships while denying biological females opportunities that Title IX was sanctioned to protect.
Rep. Mary Miller (R-Illinois), who opposes the left’s radical sex agenda, has filed a Congressional Review Act to prevent schools from losing their federal funding if they don’t follow the White House’s new rules—which she calls “evil.”
Miller’s resolution has the signature of some 70 members, and she believes even more will join the effort. “I mean, it’s only common sense,” Miller, a mom, pointed out.
Former collegiate All-American swimmer Riley Gaines, whose record-tying feat was discredited by a male swimmer known as Lia Thomas, couldn’t agree more. During her recent “Take Back Title IX” tour stop in Montana, she asked, “How many opportunities have to be lost? How many girls have to be exploited in their locker rooms? How many girls have to be injured in their sports before this changes?” ©2024 BGEA
Above: Transgender University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas and University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines react after tying for 5th place in the 200 Freestyle finals at the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships on March 18, 2022.
Photo: Rich Von Biberseint / Icon Sportswire / AP