Department of Education Must Renounce Its Reckless Title IX Plan

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Rebecca Hain: 513-479-3335

Department of Education Must Renounce Its Reckless Title IX Plan

WASHINGTON / December 7, 2023 – On March 8, 2021 President Joe Biden issued an Executive Order directing the Department of Education (DOE) to draft a new regulation redefining the meaning of sex to include “gender identity.” (1) The DOE issued a draft regulation on June 23, 2022 (2), but without explanation, missed two self-imposed deadlines to release the final version in May and October of 2023. (3)

In the meantime, attorneys general filed several lawsuits, and dozens of federal and state lawmakers voiced strong opposition to the Biden proposal (4).

The new regulation is feared to have far-reaching and harmful effects on due process for the falsely accused, free speech, gender transitioning of children, and parental rights (5).

In particular, the policy’s impact on women’s sports has sparked considerable debate. Over the past two years, public opinion has shifted away from support for transgender participation in women’s sports. The most recent Gallup poll found that 69% of Americans say that persons should only be allowed to play on sports teams that match their birth sex. These numbers include pluralities of Republicans (93%), Independents (67%), and Democrats (48%). (6)

Opposition to the Title IX regulation has further accelerated in recent months.

First, presidential candidates Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Donald Trump issued calls for the abolition of the Department of Education (7).

In September, 59 organizations signed a letter calling for the resignation of Office for Civil Rights director Catherine Lhamon for repeated and willful violations of the U.S. Constitution: Article 1 regarding the legislative powers of Congress, the First Amendment, and the Fourteenth Amendment (8).

In November, Rep. Lisa McClain, chairwoman of the Oversight Committee’s Subcommittee on Health Care, along with House Education and Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, sent a letter of concern to DOE Secretary Miguel Cardona. They wrote,

“The Committees are concerned that your efforts to gut due process protections for accused and accusing students, redefine ‘sex discrimination’ to include ‘gender identity,’ and otherwise abandon established regulations protecting women and girls are improperly motivated and destructive to American students.” (9)

On December 5, the House Oversight Committee convened a hearing on “The Importance of Protecting Female Athletics and Title IX.” The hearing highlighted cases in which female athletes had been injured by their male-bodied competitors (10).

“Reckless” can be defined as actions taken without thinking or caring about the consequences. Accordingly, the Biden Administration’s proposal to revamp the Title IX law must be seen as reckless in the eyes of political candidates, federal and state lawmakers, and the American public.

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