Biden Title IX rules set to protect trans students, abuse survivors
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/biden-title-ix-rules-set-to-protect-trans-students-abuse-survivors/ar-AA1nhZH3?ocid=windirect&cvid=2019be25438042aba36048ad28213c96&ei=15
Story by Laura Meckler (19 April 2024)
The Biden administration on Friday finalized sweeping new rules barring schools from discriminating against transgender students and ordering significant changes for how schools adjudicate claims of sexual harassment and assault on campus.
The provisions regarding gender identity are the most politically fraught, setting up an election-year culture clash with conservative states and school boards that have limited transgender rights in schools, banned discussion of gender identity in classrooms and removed books with LGBTQ+ themes. Mindful of the politics, the administration is delaying action on the contentious issue of whether transgender girls and women should be allowed to compete in women's and girls' sports.
The long-awaited regulation represents the administration's interpretation of Title IX, a 1972 law that bars sex discrimination in schools that receive federal funding. Title IX is best known for ushering in equal treatment for women in sports, but it also governs how schools handle complaints of sexual harassment and assault, a huge issue on many college campuses.
Now the Biden administration is deploying the regulation to formalize its long-standing view that sex discrimination includes discrimination based on gender identity as well as sexual orientation, a direct challenge to conservative policies across the country.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins that sex discrimination under Title VII applies to gender stereotypes. It only makes sense that Title IX would follow the same guidelines.
"Five federal appeals courts have explicitly ruled that transgender people are protected against discrimination under federal laws prohibiting sex discrimination, as have dozens of federal district courts and state courts. When transgender people face discrimination because they don't conform to employers' expectations about how men and women should look, behave, or identify, that's sex discrimination."
Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins (https://afj.org/article/price-waterhouse-v-hopkins-at-thirty/)