Political Standoff Over Title IX Puts Red State Colleges in No-Win Situation; Moms for Liberty Joins in Suing Biden Admin Over Title IX Protections for Trans Students; Trump Promises Rollback On Trans Rights: Here’s What He’s Said

Political Standoff Over Title IX Puts Red State Colleges in No-Win Situation:

Eight states—so far—say they’ll defy the Biden administration and not comply with the new Title IX regulations. That would imperil nearly $13 billion in federal aid for public universities in those states.

An increasing number of Republican-led states say they won’t comply with the Biden administration’s new Title IX rule, mainly arguing that its protections for transgender students conflict with their state laws. These defiant directives are putting public colleges in a serious dilemma as administrators weigh whether to risk their federal funding to appease state leaders—or follow federal regulations and potentially face the ire of state leaders.

“They very much feel damned if they do and damned if they don’t because they are now forced into a position where they must be noncompliant with either state or federal law,” said Brett Sokolow, former executive director of the Association of Title IX Administrators and now chair of the organization’s advisory board.

So far, officials in Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas, and South Carolina—most of them governors—have said in letters, statements, press conferences or executive orders that their states will not follow the new Title IX regulations. The rule applies to every school at the K-12 and postsecondary level that receives federal money. So far, most state officials have either focused on K-12 schools or made general statements that their state will not comply, while others have specifically mentioned colleges.

Colleges are already facing a tight Aug. 1 deadline to comply with the new Title IX regulations that dictate how they respond to reports of sexual harassment and misconduct, accommodate pregnant students and protect students from sex-based discrimination, including those who are gay or transgender. The provisions codifying protections for LGBTQ+ students have received the most criticism from Republican lawmakers and officials, though they’ve also raised objectives to several other changes that they say infringe on the due process rights of those accused of misconduct.

“President Biden wants to force every school across the country to treat boys and men as if they were girls and women and to accept every student’s self-declared gender identity, exceeding his authority as President in order to impose a leftist belief on the next generation,” Texas Governor Greg Abbott wrote in a letter late last week to Texas colleges directing them not to follow the new rule.

By Aug. 1, Title IX coordinators and other college officials have to review the 1,500-page regulations, determine what changes need to be made to their campus policies—especially those concerning investigations of sexual misconduct—and then update all applicable policies and procedures. Their employees need to receive training on the new Title IX rule by the time it goes into effect as well.

It’s a time-intensive summer endeavor for administrators everywhere. But in the states where officials have been directed not to comply, the process is now fraught with a different level of uncertainty. Adding to it is a growing number of lawsuits seeking to block the regulations from taking effect. At least 20 Republican-led states, including those who are planning to not comply, along with a number of conservative groups, have filed lawsuits challenging the legality of the rule. —>READ MORE HERE

Moms for Liberty joins in suing Biden administration over Title IX protections for trans students:

Moms for Liberty, a group identified as an anti-government extremist organization by the Southern Poverty Law Center, has joined forces with several Republican-led states to sue the Biden administration over new Title IX regulations. These regulations aim to protect transgender and nonbinary students but are criticized by the plaintiffs as an overreach that infringes on parental rights and imposes extreme gender ideology in K-12 education.

The lawsuit aims to stop the Department of Education’s updated Title IX regulations from taking effect. Set to be implemented on August 1, these regulations designate “gender identity” as a protected class and require schools to respect students’ chosen pronouns and access to facilities that align with their gender identity.

“Every parent in America is about to see biological boys on girls’ sports teams and in girls’ locker rooms, and gender identity and sexual orientation will be taught in every classroom across America, whether parents like it or not. They won’t have a choice,” claimed Moms for Liberty co-founders Tiffany Justice and Tina Descovich in a press release. “Private conversations will happen between school officials and minor school children about changing their gender, and if parents try to fight back, they will be the ones in the wrong. This is a huge shift in policy that effectively mandates gender ideology in schools.”

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach held a press conference Tuesday afternoon to announce the lawsuit, which was filed in federal district court in Kansas earlier. “The State of Kansas, along with Wyoming, Utah, and Alaska, as well as private plaintiffs Moms for Liberty, Young America’s Foundation, and Female Athletes United, filed a lawsuit challenging the Biden administration’s new regulation,” Kobach said. He argued that the new rule essentially states that treating individuals by their biological sex rather than their gender identity violates Title IX and could result in the loss of federal funding.

Kobach said the regulation would “effectively destroy women’s sports over time” by allowing transgender female athletes to compete against cisgender females, which he argues is unfair and dangerous. He also raised false concerns about privacy and safety, claiming, ”A 14-year-old girl could be forced to share a locker room and to disrobe and change clothes and shower in the same locker room with an 18-year-old male who identifies as a woman.”

In addition, the lawsuit challenges provisions related to abortion. “Under Biden’s Title IX rule, schools must provide leave and disability services for those who seek abortions or risk losing federal funding,” Kobach said, arguing that this contradicts the neutrality mandated by Title IX regarding abortion. —>READ MORE HERE

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