Title IX is a piece of legislation that has, for over 50 years, stood to protect students against gender discrimination in any school that relies on federal funding. The definitions of the law have shifted somewhat, though, over time.
During Barack Obama’s presidency, for example, guidance was issued explaining that discriminating against someone for their sexual orientation or gender identity also falls under the umbrella of Title IX violations. Donald Trump withdrew that guidance, and now President Joe Biden has reissued it.
The legislation has undergone similar evolution with regard to sexual harassment and rape, according to The Brookings Institution. Neither was initially mentioned in the 1972 version of the legislation, but in the 1990s, there was a movement to recognize that colleges and universities had a duty to recognize and prevent this kind of abuse. The Supreme Court affirmed that schools had this duty when the behavior effectively bars a person from accessing education based on their gender. Obama tightened the regulations; Trump loosened them; Biden has tightened them again.
Texas is not happy about any of this (well, except maybe the Trump parts) and not only is the state’s Governor ordering the Texas Education Alliance to ignore the rules, but his Attorney General, the embattled and embittered Ken Paxton, is actually suing to overturn the regulations. The Hill reports:
“Texas will not allow Joe Biden to rewrite Title IX at whim, destroying legal protections for women in furtherance of his radical obsession with gender ideology,” Paxton said Monday in a news release announcing the lawsuit. “This attempt to subvert federal law is plainly illegal, undemocratic, and divorced from reality.”
The phrase “gender identity,” which, like the phrase “sexual harassment,” was once not even in the common lexicon (though “gender identity” was coined in the 1960s and “sexual harassment” in the following decade), but it still sends conservatives into rages. It appears in the new legislation guidelines more than 250 times, over the course of 1,588 pages. Texas Governor Greg Abbott is fuming. He tweeted:
“Congress wrote Title IX to protect women. Biden, with no authority to do so, rewrote Title IX to protect men who identify as women. This tramples Texas laws that prohibit men in women’s sports. I am instructing the Texas Education Agency to ignore Biden’s illegal dictate.”
Conservatives have never had so much interest in women’s sports as they’ve developed since transgender women started being treated a little more equally.
Colleges and universities can certainly choose to reject Title IX rules, as long as they’re also willing to accept the withdrawal of federal funding. That’s the penalty that could be on the table if Texas schools choose to obey Governor Abbott and discriminate against transgender students — unless Paxton’s lawsuit prevails.
The culture wars continue.
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