Texas Sues Department of Education to Block Biden Administration’s ‘Gender Identity’ Title IX Expansion

Texas is suing the U.S. Department of Education to block the Biden administration’s recent rewrite of Title IX, which will soon prohibit discrimination based on “gender identity” and sexual orientation in federally funded educational institutions.

The federal lawsuit, filed by Texas attorney general Ken Paxton on Monday, states the Title IX revisions misinterpret the original intent of the 1972 law, which was created to protect students from sex-based discrimination. The modified rules, Paxton argues, will harm, not protect, women in educational settings by allowing male students to use bathrooms and locker rooms formerly reserved for females and to compete in women’s sports.

“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 in a statement announcing the lawsuit. “This attempt to subvert federal law is plainly illegal, undemocratic, and divorced from reality. Texas will always take the lead to oppose Biden’s extremist, destructive policies that put women at risk.”

The revised rules, set to take effect August 1, “prohibits discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics in federally funded education programs,” according to a Department of Education fact sheet. Federal funding will be pulled from colleges and universities that do not comply with the updated civil-rights policies, which will include protections for LGBTQ+ and pregnant students as well.

The revision will also roll back a Trump-era policy that required live hearings and cross-examinations, in which students accused of sexual assault could question their accusers. Under the new rules, the live hearings will be optional and preclude “unclear or harassing” questions from being asked.

Texas filed a similar lawsuit against the Biden administration in June 2023, when the long-anticipated Title IX revisions were not yet finalized.

Joining Paxton in pursuing the most recent litigation is America First Legal, a conservative nonprofit based in Washington, D.C. Its president, Stephen Miller, called the new Title IX regulation a “vile obscenity,” as it “forces women and girls to share locker rooms and restrooms with men.”

“It forces them to call a he, a she, and to pretend in every way that a man is a woman, humiliating, degrading, and erasing women,” said Miller, who served as senior adviser to former president Donald Trump. “This is an abomination, and as outside counsel for Texas we will battle this regulation in court with all the legal fight we can bring.”

President Joe Biden intended to expand Title IX protections since 2021, but the timeline for its release had been repeatedly delayed. Originally expected in May 2023, the release was postponed to October and then to March; it was published on April 19.

With its final release, the Department of Education cited a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court decision as its reasoning for extending gender-identity and sexual-orientation protections to students. In Bostock v. Clayton County, the Court ruled that Title VII, which bars sex-based discrimination in the workplace, applies to transgender and LGBTQ+ employees.

Texas is one of several Republican states legally challenging the new Title IX regulations. Louisiana, Mississippi, Idaho, and Montana all filed a separate lawsuit on Monday, partnering with the Defense of Freedom Institute. Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina also filed a joint lawsuit, with the Independent Women’s Law Center, Independent Women’s Network, Parents Defending Education, and Speech First listed as plaintiffs.

Additionally, top education officials from Wyoming, Oklahoma, and other states have rebuked the law’s reinterpretation since it was announced over a week ago.