Title IX Rules Expanding Protections for LGBTQ+ Students Struck Down Nationwide
A federal judge in Kentucky has struck down the Biden administration’s Title IX rules expanding protections for LGBTQ+ students, finding that they overstepped the president’s authority. The 1,500-page regulation had already been halted in 26 states after a wave of legal challenges by Republican states.
The decision came in response to a lawsuit filed by six states, including Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia. In a statement, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti called the decision a “victory for the protection of girls’ privacy in locker rooms and showers, and for the freedom to speak biologically-accurate pronouns.”
The Education Department did not immediately comment on the decision. The Biden administration had finalized the new rules last year, expanding Title IX to prevent discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation and expanding the definition of harassment to include a broader range of misconduct.
Civil rights advocates had hailed the regulation as a victory, saying it gave LGBTQ+ students new recourse against discrimination. However, it drew outrage from conservatives who said it could be used to protect transgender athletes in girls’ sports.
In his decision, Judge Danny C. Reeves found that the Education Department overstepped its authority by expanding the scope of Title IX and violating free speech rights by requiring teachers to use pronouns aligning with a student’s gender identity. Rather than carving out certain aspects of the rule, Reeves decided to toss the regulation in its entirety and revert to a previous interpretation of Title IX.
The decision is seen as a major victory for conservative groups and a setback for LGBTQ+ rights. Former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos celebrated the decision on social media, writing that the “radical, unfair, illegal, and absurd Biden Title IX re-write is GONE.”
