Conservative attorneys general have accused President Joe Biden of jeopardizing the safety of cisgender girls by implementing policies aimed at creating safer environments for transgender children in schools.
Additional states have joined in lawsuits against the Biden administration regarding its updated Title IX regulations, which require protections against discrimination for LGBTQ+ students. The total number of states involved in legal action against the administration now stands at 14.
Recently, Alabama, South Carolina, Florida, and Georgia teamed up to file a joint lawsuit against the administration. They were joined by the Independent Women’s Network, Parents Defending Education, Speech First, and the Independent Women’s Law Center. Concurrently, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) announced a separate challenge to the new regulations.
Currently, Tennessee is spearheading a legal challenge against the new regulations, with support from Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, and Virginia joining in the lawsuit. Additionally, attorneys general from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Idaho have filed a separate lawsuit against the Biden administration’s rules.
The recent regulations interpret Title IX, a statute prohibiting sex-based discrimination in educational settings, as extending legal protections against anti-LGBTQ+ school policies. The rationale behind this interpretation is that discriminating based on sexual orientation or gender identity inherently involves considering sex, echoing a legal argument employed by the Supreme Court in its 2020 Bostock v. Clayton Co. decision regarding workplace discrimination.
These regulations mean that any educational institution receiving federal funds cannot discriminate against LGBTQ+ students. This may impact states and school districts with policies that involve outing LGBTQ+ students to their parents or prohibiting trans students from using bathrooms aligning with their gender. Additionally, these rules could provide students encountering discrimination with avenues for legal recourse in federal courts.
During a press conference, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti (R) cited the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as he outlined his stance on discriminating against trans youth.
“The law, Title IX, has protected women for 50 years,” Skrmetti stated, as reported by The Tennessean. “It is a law… built around the idea of men and women, sex binary. As Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg noted, enduring differences between the sexes necessitate things like separate bathrooms, separate locker rooms, separate living facilities, separate sports teams. This is something that our law has recognized for decades.”
The rules, however, do not propose the elimination of single-gender spaces. Instead, they mandate schools to include all individuals identifying as boys in boys’ spaces and all individuals identifying as girls in girls’ spaces.
Skrmetti argued that under the rules, “a boy can enter a girl’s locker room at a school, and if a girl expresses discomfort with his presence, she may face investigation and potential penalties for violating civil rights. The new rules are entirely inconsistent with the text of Title IX, and their adoption violates the United States Constitution.”
In a press release, Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen (R) asserted that the rules will “ultimately prohibit schools from distinguishing between males and females in athletic and educational opportunities,” placing women at an unfair disadvantage and compelling boys and girls to share facilities like bathrooms, locker rooms, dormitories, and even overnight accommodations during school trips.
He also stated that it is designed to “federally coerce schools into indoctrinating students in gender identity theories popular among progressive parents but that ignore science.”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) asserted on X that President Joe Biden is “abusing his constitutional authority to push an ideological agenda that harms women and girls and conflicts with the truth.”
“We will not comply,” DeSantis continued, “and we will resist Biden’s harmful agenda.”
Fifty-three conservative parent organizations, led by Parents Defending Education (PDE), signed a letter asserting that trans inclusivity “poses a serious threat to the safety and opportunities of women and girls and infringes on students’ First Amendment rights” by mandating the use of correct pronouns for trans and nonbinary students, even against their wishes.
The letter also accused the Biden administration of catering to “a small yet vocal group of extreme activists.”
The new rules, slated to take effect on August 1, will nullify numerous anti-transgender policies established during the tenure of former President Donald Trump. Throughout his administration, Trump opposed the legal interpretation that laws prohibiting discrimination “based on sex” also prohibit anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination, especially in educational settings. In 2017, then-Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos issued guidance asserting that Title IX did not safeguard LGBTQ+ students, shortly after she and Attorney General Jeff Sessions rescinded guidance from the Obama administration that stated otherwise.
The Biden administration had pledged to introduce the newly revealed rules by January, but the Department of Education cited a delay in their release, attributing it to an unprecedented volume of over 240,000 comments submitted during the 30-day public response period for the new rules.
While conservative backlash has ensued, LGBTQ+ organizations have celebrated the announcement, although they also assert that more measures are necessary.
The National Women’s Law Center issued a statement that both celebrated and criticized the newly unveiled rules, acknowledging, “As we celebrate this milestone, we recognize that this regulation does not go far enough in making the law’s protections clear for all student-athletes.” Joining in the statement were 22 other organizations, including LGBTQ+ advocacy groups like GLSEN, the Human Rights Campaign, PFLAG National, and the National Center for Transgender Equality.
Representative Mark Takano (D-CA), who is openly gay, expressed, “The Education Department and Biden Administration showed real courage today, delivering on a long-held promise to ensure that the federal government does more to protect all Americans—especially LGBTQ Americans—from discrimination. This groundbreaking rule is a major victory, but we still have much to do. We need to enshrine and expand its protections by passing the Equality Act because for too many Americans, their rights and protections depend on the zip code they live in.”
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