In response to the Biden administration’s proposed revisions to Title IX, which would broaden the scope of anti-discrimination protections to encompass gender identity, a number of Republican attorneys general have filed a new lawsuit.
Legal groups representing states including Kansas, Utah, Alaska, and Wyoming, as well as organizations like Moms For Liberty, Young America’s Foundation, and Female Athletes United, have filed an 85-page complaint claiming that the regulation politicizes education in order to “conform to the radical ideological ideas of the Biden administration and its allies.”
It names the Justice Department, Attorney General Merrick Garland, the Education Department, Secretary Miguel Cardona of the Education Department, and the Justice Department. Some conservatives are worried that Biden’s proposed revisions to Title IX will weaken state laws that prohibit men from entering women’s restrooms, locker rooms, and athletic events.
Kris Kobach, Kansas’s attorney general, stated, “If Biden gets his way, the district could risk losing federal funds if they force a 16-year-old female high school student on an overnight field trip to share a hotel room with a biological man who identifies as a girl.” The district may lose money if they have a 14-year-old girl change in front of an 18-year-old male who dresses as a woman, or if they make her share a locker room. In addition to being illegal on a national level, it is morally reprehensible and poses a threat to women and girls.
Among the many issues raised by Kobach at the news conference announcing the lawsuit were the following: the expansion of abortion benefits for students and school staff, the loss of due process for students accused of sexual misconduct, and the intrusion of transgender-identifying males into female spaces.
This drive to modify women’s sports is driven by a pure ideological crusade, not by introducing politics into sports. Sports should be devoid of politics, Kobach remarked during a news conference.
Claiming a violation of federal law and the First, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments, the lawsuit challenges Biden’s new standards.
“This regulation is discriminatory and unfair because it forces girls and women to compete with biological males in athletics and other school programs and activities,” the lawsuit states. “At a time when they are still developing their identities, it compels boys and girls to share bathrooms, locker rooms, and even their bedrooms with strangers.”
Several other Republican politicians from states including South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, and Louisiana have also challenged Biden’s rewrite of Title IX.
