The Biden administration’s pro-transgender rewrite of Title IX rules is hiding rule changes that could end single-sex K-12 sports as soon as August 2024.
When the rules were first released last week, analysts noted that the word “transgender” was not seen in the revisions sponsored by Biden’s Department of Education. Some find the changes an obvious attempt to thwart state rules banning trans athletes in women’s sports.
However, as more reviewed the changes, it has become clear that other changes may have made specifically mentioning the transgender athlete issue unnecessary.
At issue are the segments that seem to require schools to use the “pronouns” demanded by trans identifying kids in schools. Not to mention the provisions that protect kids along “gender identity” lines.
Title IX, of course, are the federal rules that define sexual discrimination for educational institutions that take federal funding and are part of the civil rights legislation in the 1972 Education Amendments. The legislation originally aimed to protect women and minorities from being denied educational opportunities, including in school sports, but Biden’s changes go far afield of that original intent.
According to a review by Gospel Coalition, Biden’s administration added “gender identity” to its rules prohibiting “sex-based harassment,” which expands the coverage from male-female definitions to cover LGBTQ and transgender definitions.
The new rules also prohibit discrimination against LGBT+ individuals, aligning with the Supreme Court’s Bostock v. Clayton County.
On the latter point, TGC explains:
This last element is likely to be most significant. In the landmark case of Bostock v. Clayton County (2020), the Supreme Court ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on sex, also protects individuals from discrimination based on his or her sexual orientation and gender identity. In this Title IX final rule, the Department of Education incorporates the Bostock decision’s reasoning, expressly prohibiting discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics in federally funded education programs.
While Biden’s rules do not specifically mention transgenderism, education secretary Miguel Cardona noted that this was done on purpose because the “standards for students participating on male and female athletic teams are evolving in real time.” Cardona added that the administration will revisit the rules in due time and the current rules concerning transgenderism are not final as “separate rulemaking” will be forthcoming.
So, the addition of “gender identity” to the rules scheme would necessarily protect transgenders already, even if they aren’t specifically mentioned.
Currently, 24 states have enacted bans or restrictions on transgender procedures or athletes competing on teams that match their gender identity.
The administration has set August 2024 as the deadline for educational institutions to implement the new regulations.
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