(The Center Square) – A coalition of 26 conservative organizations have called on the Biden administration to halt making changes to Title IX, which they argue, if implemented, will negatively harm girls and women.
In a letter sent to Catherine Lhamon, assistant secretary of the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education, the coalition expressed alarm over the administration’s “extremist position” to alter Title IX “by regulatory fiat.”
Title IX, which is part of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, states, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.”
One significant proposed change by the Biden administration is to add gender identity as a nondiscrimination category under Title IX. Doing so, the coalition argues, “would demolish 50 years of progress in women’s sports in schools, colleges, and universities and erode the rights of parents in K-12 schools.”
Such a change “is particularly disturbing to those of us who have cheered the great progress that has occurred in women’s sports since the passage of Title IX nearly fifty years ago,” the coalition wrote. “Such a move would unquestionably damage athletic opportunities for women in schools, colleges, and universities and wreak havoc on Title IX’s requirement to establish and maintain a level playing field for women in athletics.”
In December, Lhamon announced new rule changes would be published this month to ensure “that schools are providing students with educational environments free from discrimination in the form of sexual harassment.” The coalition argues this is already happening because of historic changes that went into effect in 2020.
Lhamon said the new rule would ensure “grievance procedures [are implemented] that provide for the fair, prompt, and equitable resolution of reports of sexual harassment and other sex discrimination.”
Lhamon also said the changes will address “discrimination based on sex, including sexual orientation and gender identity, in educational environments.”
But there’s “absolutely no reason to re-write the current Title IX rule, an historic regulation that protects survivors and requires due process for the accused,” said Bob Eitel, president of Defense of Freedom Institute for Policy Studies, the group that organized the coalition’s letter.
“It appears that the Administration has allowed interest groups with extreme ideological agendas to commandeer the Title IX rulemaking process,” he said in a news release. “Americans who have cheered the progress in women’s sports over the last 50 years, as well as supporters of parents’ rights in K-12 and due process, free speech, and religious liberty on campus, should be very concerned.”
DFI maintains that Congress passed Title IX “for the purpose of preserving and enhancing athletic opportunities for women and girls based on their biological sex at birth.”
The department’s plan to redefine discrimination to include gender identity instead of biological sex “completely ignores the language and structure of Title IX,” the coalition argues. “Indeed, the very text of Title IX demonstrates an understanding that ‘sex’ is male or female – binary and biological. Underscoring this understanding of ‘sex,’ the statute expressly authorizes separation based on male or female ‘sex’ in certain circumstances.”
Longstanding DOE regulations allow educational programs and institutions to maintain a range of policies that would be altered under the proposed changes. Currently, sports are divided by sex, between biological male and female teams. Team selection, assessment of competitive skills…
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