To Thwart Harmful Changes to Federal Title IX Policy, Candidates for Office Are Invited to Sign Pledge

PRESS RELEASE

Rebecca Hain: 513-479-3335

To Thwart Harmful Changes to Federal Title IX Policy, Candidates for Office Are Invited to Sign Pledge

WASHINGTON / January 17, 2024 – Proposed changes to the federal Title IX law have become a flash-point of controversy in the upcoming 2024 elections. The new policy, which is expected to expand the definition of sex to include “gender identity,” would have destructive effects on women’s sports, gender transitioning among children, parental rights, free speech, and due process (1).

Title IX is the law designed to curb sex discrimination in schools. The U.S. Department of Education is vowing to release a new Title IX regulation in March (2).

Some have charged that Title IX has become “weaponized” to curtail free speech (3) and curb due process (4). Last month, a jury awarded a historic $15 million verdict against Thomas Jefferson University for flagrant due process violations by its Title IX office (5).

Abuses of the federal law have become a recent focus of heated debate:

Numerous attorneys general and federal lawmakers have issued statements of opposition (6).
25 Republican governors have called on the Biden administration to withdraw its proposed changes to Title IX. (7)
Title IX has been hotly discussed during the Republican presidential debates (8, 9).
Presidential candidates Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump have both issued statements calling for the abolition of the U.S. Department of Education (10).

In response, SAVE is inviting candidates for federal, state, or local office to sign the “Candidate Pledge to Protect Schools, Children, and Families from the Federal Title IX Plan.” The Pledge states,

When elected to office, I pledge to work to assure that:

Schools and other organizations shall utilize the traditional binary definition of “sex.”
Schools shall obtain prior consent from parents for any use of gender pronouns, or gender-dysphoria counseling or treatments.
Parents shall have the right to examine and opt their children out of any school curricula dealing with sexuality and gender identity.
Schools shall only allow biological females to participate in women’s sports, enter women’s locker rooms, and use women’s bathrooms.
Schools shall adhere to Constitutional due process procedures to protect falsely accused males from Title IX complaints.
Schools and other institutions shall fully uphold Constitutional free speech guarantees.

The Candidate Pledge can be viewed online (11). To date, 44 lawmakers have signed the statement (12). The elected officials come from the following 19 states: Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Candidates can indicate their support for the Pledge by sending a confirmatory email to: rthompson@saveservices.org

Citations:

News and Commentary