A coalition of red states is suing the Biden administration to stop its attempt to extend Title IX protections to “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.”
Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana and Idaho have filed lawsuits that seek to prevent the Department of Education (DOE) from imposing new Title IX regulations intended to protect members of the LGBT community. The new regulations would, for example, force educational institutions receiving federal funds to allow men who identify as women to use most female-only spaces and to join most female-only organizations.
“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,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a press release. “This attempt to subvert federal law is plainly illegal, undemocratic, and divorced from reality.”
The Biden administration’s new rules “would force schools to permit biological males to use female restrooms and lockers” or lose federal funding, according to a press release put out by the Texas attorney general’s office.
While the new rule would require universities to provide extensive accommodations to transgender students, it does make exceptions for student living facilities and sports teams, which can continue to be separated by biological sex. The Biden administration, however, is working on a separate rule that would prevent schools from universally barring transgender athletes from playing on their preferred teams.
The Biden administration’s changes also alter the previous standard for sexual harassment, now requiring schools to punish students for what the Republicans suing the Biden administration argue could be constitutionally protected speech.
Title IX’s new gender identity protections, according to Texas’ lawsuit, “institutes a sweeping new standard that would subject students, faculty, and staff to onerous investigations if they fail to use a transgender student’s preferred pronouns.” These requirements violate the First Amendment, the lawsuit alleges.
The joint lawsuit filed by Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana and Idaho raises similar concerns, arguing that students at federally-funded schools “will be forced to use ‘preferred pronouns’ or else face punishment” which the states say “raises distinct free speech and free expression problems.” Their lawsuit also alleges that parents may not be told if their children are receiving “gender-affirming” counseling at their schools.
Both the Texas lawsuit and the joint lawsuit filed by Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana and Idaho allege that the DOE is illegally expanding the definition of “sex” in Title IX to include self-identified gender.
“Under this new rule, safe and private spaces for women to engage in healing, fellowship, and support will be torn away from them,” Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch said. “The Administration’s legal theories are novel, at best, and they cut legal corners to push them through, and we intend to defeat this rule in the courts.”
DOE did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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