At least nine states have filed lawsuits against the Biden administration over its new Title IX rules forcing public schools to allow tran...
At least nine states have filed lawsuits against the Biden administration over its new Title IX rules forcing public schools to allow trans-identifying males to compete in women’s sports and use women’s bathrooms.
Earlier this month, the Education Department unveiled new Title IX regulations to prohibit schools from enforcing blanket bans on trans-identifying males in girls’ sports set to take effect in August.
Title IX is the 1972 federal civil rights law prohibiting sex-based discrimination at schools receiving federal funding.
As of Monday, Montana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Idaho, Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina have all filed lawsuits over the administration’s interpretation of the civil rights law.
Some of the states filed lawsuits together. Montana led a coalition that included Louisiana, Mississippi, and Idaho. Likewise, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina teamed up to file a joint suit. Texas filed its own lawsuit.
“For 50 years Title IX has protected girls and women’s rights, but President Biden has abandoned those protections to appease the woke left,” Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen said.
“This rule is not based in scientific reality. It redefines biological sex which will allow men to compete in women’s sports, violate women’s privacy, and put women and girls in dangerous situations on campus. I will continue to fight to protect women and uphold Montana’s laws against federal overreach,” the attorney general added.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton accused the administration of attempting to twist the federal law’s meaning to align with “radical gender ideology.”
“Texas will not allow Joe Biden to rewrite Title IX at whim, destroying legal protections for women in furtherance of his radical obsession with gender ideology,” Paxton wrote in a statement Monday. “This attempt to subvert federal law is plainly illegal, undemocratic, and divorced from reality. Texas will always take the lead to oppose Biden’s extremist, destructive policies that put women at risk.”
The Biden administration’s new regulations will apply to all public K-12 schools, colleges, and universities that receive federal funding.
The new rules state that schools that receive federal funding may not ban biological males in girls’ sports wholesale, but they may exclude them on a case-by-case basis.
“Sex-related criteria” at schools that would limit or ban a trans-identified student from playing on the team of their preferred gender must meet two standards. First, the criteria must be related to an “important educational objective,” and second, the criteria must also “minimize harms” to the trans-identified student.
Preventing sports-related injuries would be an example of an “important educational objective,” the department noted.
High school girls have been injured playing with trans-identifying males. Last year in North Carolina, a female high school volleyball player suffered severe trauma to her head and neck after a trans-identifying male player spiked a volleyball that hit her head.
Another example of an “important educational objective” would be “fairness in competition.”
Female athletes at high schools and colleges in several states have spoken out against competing against biological males.
The updated rules may conflict with laws in several states restricting trans-identifying students from playing on girls’ teams or using girls’ facilities.
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