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Commentary

New Title IX Rule Creates Federal Dictatorship over America’s Public Schools

September 6, 2022

The Biden administration remains manically committed to weaponizing the U.S. government and civil rights law to advance the LGBTQ+ agenda. The Department of Education’s newly proposed Title IX rule uses the federal rulemaking process to destabilize students with gender ideology, roll back rights for women and girls, and undermine parental rights, just to name a few — all in order to force the LGBTQ+ political agenda on every public school student in America.

On the 50th Anniversary of Title IX, President Biden’s Department of Education proposed a 700-page federal rule that redefines “sex” in Title IX policies to include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.” Under the new rule, men who claim to be women will be allowed to compete on women’s sports teams, shower in women’s locker rooms, and be housed in spaces previously reserved for women only, i.e., hotel rooms on school sponsored trips and women’s dormitories.

Under the new rule, women and girls who object to this will be guilty of discrimination — because sex discrimination will now be based on (a man’s) “gender identity.” Equal opportunity for women in academics and sport will be erased if this rule is enforced. That fact alone would be enough to oppose the proposed rule, but the Queer Theory radicals running Biden’s Department of Education don’t stop at stripping women’s rights from Title IX: parental rights, due process rights, free speech rights, and other fundamental rights are jeopardized by this authoritarian proposed rule.

Under this version of Title IX, here are a few examples of how the Department of Education will use the power of the federal government:

  • Force girls to share intimate spaces like showers, locker rooms, and bedrooms with ;
  • Cause girls to lose sex-specific scholarships to males who identify as female;
  • Ensure the LGBTQ+ political agenda is incorporated into every public school’s curricula and policies;
  • Silence girls who express concerns about their privacy and safety and shut down objections by labeling disagreement as “discrimination”;
  • Allow students to file official harassment claims if they are not addressed by their preferred pronouns, even when those do not align with their biological sex;
  • Justify the creation of two sets of files for students, one parents are allowed to see and another that “affirms the gender” of children without parental knowledge or consent;
  • Redefine terms like “parental status,” “pregnancy,” and “sex” while failing to define concepts like “transgender” or “sexual orientation”;
  • Undermine due process protections for those accused of Title IX violations;
  • Expand the power of Title IX Officers, granting them enormous enforcement and oversight powers in K-12 schools, colleges, and universities; and
  • Erroneously apply Title VII employment case law (Bostock v. Clayton County) to Title IX.

The negative impacts of this rule change cannot be overstated.

You can file a comment to object. You can share your opinion about rule changes that will impose a radical gender ideology on students, violate the bodily privacy and safety of young girls, and undermine parental rights. Please tell the Department of Education you strongly oppose any changes in their education policies that redefine “sex” to include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.”

If you would like a template to use for your public comments, here are three comment starter letters you can choose from:

You are free to incorporate the concerns mentioned here, but the more personal and unique you can make your comment, the more helpful that will be. When I worked at the department during the Trump administration, I learned that government agencies are trained to ignore comments from the public that they think are generated by organizations or “mass mailings.” So be sure to describe how these changes will impact your daughter or family, violate privacies and opportunities for women, undermine the rights of students and teachers, and how redefining sex in Title IX defeats the purpose of Title IX.

Tell the Department of Education you oppose redefining sex in Title IX!

And last — but never least — pray for our nation’s leaders, especially those making policy decisions for our nation’s schools. Every day is a great day to start 30 days of prayer for schools. And if you are considering running for local office or school board, visit frcaction.org/schools for our School Board Boot Camp series and other helpful information. We are blessed to live in the greatest nation in the world; our children deserve nothing less than the best education and future we can provide with God’s help. 

Meg Kilgannon is Senior Fellow for Education Studies at Family Research Council.