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Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) joined thousands of concerned parents in providing some strongly worded comments for President Biden’s proposed Title IX changes Sunday night.
The Biden administration’s proposed amendments to Title IX, the civil rights law established in 1972 to prohibit sex-based discrimination in schools, would expand those protections to include sexual orientation and gender identity. The proposals are so controversial they have received a record response from outraged parents and concerned citizens – over 184,000 comments as of Monday.
ADF, the group said, focused on parental rights and how the change “would compel schools to treat students as whatever sex they prefer—without parents’ knowledge or consent” in its letter. ADF describes itself as “an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.”
“The Rule Will Harm Parental Rights and Endanger Children,” ADF’s letter reads at the outset, with a number of bullets explaining why.
BIDEN’S CONTROVERSIAL TITLE IX RULE BOMBARDED WITH RECORD NUMBER OF COMMENTS FROM CONCERNED PARENTS
“Redefining ‘sex discrimination’ to include gender-identity discrimination undermines parental rights and exposes children to the risk of long-term harms,” Katherine L. Anderson, senior counsel for ADF’s Director of the Center of Parental Rights, wrote in the letter to Biden Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.
The letter explains that school districts across the country are introducing policies that require staff to ask students to provide their preferred name and pronouns, without parents’ or guardians’ knowledge. ADF charged that was “no accident.”
“The implications of such policies are clear: School districts are enabling students to lead double lives — using one name and set of pronouns at school and another at home, without their parents’ knowledge and consent,” ADF wrote. “The lack of parental knowledge is no accident. The purpose of these policies is to cut parents out of decisions about their children until school officials have decided that they will approach their child’s desire to live as the opposite sex the way that school officials want them to approach it.”
Biden’s proposals, Anderson continued, would “proliferate” the trend. The letter argued that it is also unconstitutional.
“Policies like the proposed rule that ignore biological reality — ignore sex — pose serious risks to student health and safety and undermine the fundamental right of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children,” she wrote. “And the U.S. Supreme Court has long held that the Constitution safeguards that right.”
ADF continued, outlining how the rules would override parents in other areas like curricula and the use of facilities. Several other commenters suggested the new Title IX rules would pave the way for more progressive and divisive lessons and the potential dangers of schools letting students choose bathrooms that correspond not with their biological sex, but with their gender identity.
“Many public schools are indoctrinating students in harmful views of human sexuality and race, injecting ideas from critical race and critical gender theories into classrooms,” Anderson wrote. “ADF helps parents and teachers challenge this indoctrination of students.”
“The proposed rule likely also grants children an absolute right to use school facilities and participate in activities ‘consistent with…