The U.S. Department of Education recently issued a rule redefining “sex” in Title IX to include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.”
Multiple states, school districts and women’s groups are now pushing back against the rule, which essentially guts what Title IX was intended to do: provide equal opportunities for girls and women in education.
The redefinition follows a diktat from the White House, issued on January 20, 2021, that required every federal agency to implement “sex discrimination” policies that included gender identity and sexual orientation.
States and school districts are refusing to implement the radical rewrite of Title IX that permits men to freely access women’s locker rooms, bathrooms and sports, and groups are filing lawsuits against the new rule.
Here’s a rundown of some of the opposition the DOE faces across the country.
- Oklahoma State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters directed all school districts in the state not to comply with the Title IX rewrite, saying it was “one of the most illegal and radical moves we have ever seen from the Federal Government.”
- Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz, Jr. issued a similar directive to local school districts, saying, “Florida will fight this … no education institution should begin implementing any changes.”
- The Independent Women’s Forum, along with “female college athletes, college students, parents, and state attorneys general filed a blockbuster lawsuit against the … illegal Title IX regulation.” Parents Defending Education, Speech First,and the states of Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina joined the suit.
- Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana and Idaho filed a lawsuit to stop the “rule that fully hollows out Title IX’s purpose of promoting equal opportunities for girls in education and protecting the dignity of women in private spaces.”
- “Texas filed a lawsuit Monday over the Biden administration’s new Title IX rules forcing public schools to allow trans-identifying males to compete in women’s sports and use women’s bathrooms,” the Daily Wire
- The Rapides Parish School Board, in Louisiana, filed suit against the DOE, announced the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), saying the redefinition of “sex” will “impose widespread harms on young people and deny free speech on campus.”
- Tennessee, West Virginia, and Kentucky, joined by Indiana, Ohio and Virginia, filed a suit alleging, “The sweeping Title IX mandate would upend schools’ long-lawful practices protecting student privacy, unfairly undermine women’s academic and athletic achievements and related advancement in society, and punish States for following their laws.”
ADF Senior Counsel Natalie Thompson said of the rule change:
The Biden administration’s radical redefinition of sex turns back the clock on equal opportunity for women, undermines fairness, and threatens every student’s safety and privacy.
The administration continues to ignore biological reality, science, and common sense.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti explained that the new Title IX rule would target women who oppose men in their sports, showers, locker rooms and restrooms. He stated:
Under this radical and illegal attempt to rewrite the statute, if a man enters a woman’s locker room and a woman complains that makes her uncomfortable, the woman will be subject to investigation and penalties for violating the man’s civil rights.
Federal bureaucrats have no power to rewrite laws passed by the people’s elected representatives, and I expect the courts will put a stop to this unconstitutional power grab.
Humans are male and female from conception, immutably so. Science and all human societies throughout history affirm this objective truth. The DOE – and all the government agencies creating rules like this – are distorting and twisting reality by saying boys can turn into girls and there are an infinitude of “genders.”
In addition, this is not just a battle over restrooms and sports – as important as it is to protect women and children and truth.
Scripture teaches that God’s image and likeness are somehow reflected in the two types of humans – male and female. So the ideology undergirding these agency rules is ultimately an assault by Satan on the image of God.
Those who view themselves as the opposite sex or as “trans” or “non-binary” are not the enemy – but they are deceived about who they are. And those who support this sexual identity confusion are also caught up in confusion and lies.
We cannot and must not acquiesce to this agenda, even as we hold out hope, salvation and healing for those caught up in this deceit.
Related articles and resources:
Biden Becomes Nation’s Most Powerful Trans Activist With Executive Order
Florida and Oklahoma Reject Biden Admin’s Rule Letting Men into Women’s Bathrooms and Sports
New Biden Admin. Rule Lets Men into Women’s Locker Rooms, Bathrooms and Sports
Riley Gaines, Fourth-Wave Feminism and the Battle for Women’s Sports
