Editors at National Review Online take aim at the president’s Title IX changes.
In a sweeping new Title IX rule, the Biden administration has usurped Congress to undermine free speech, dissolve due process, and redefine sex to include “gender identity.” The rule, effective August 1, will force all educational entities in receipt of federal funds to allow males access to female spaces, sports, and scholarships whenever they claim transgender status.
In 1972, Title IX, an education amendment to the Civil Rights Act, made it unlawful to discriminate “on the basis of sex.” Of course, there have always been contexts in which it is necessary to acknowledge sex differences to ensure the safety, privacy, and equal opportunity of females — a fact that the law’s drafters explicitly acknowledged. Fifty years ago, lawmakers understood sex to be anatomical and weren’t in the grip of dubious “gender identity” theory.
This biology-based understanding of sex still prevails today. Take sports, for instance. Most Americans believe that sports should be segregated by sex, without regard to transgender status. Presumably aware of public opinion, the Biden administration frames its Title IX rewrite as separate from the athletics question, saying it will deal with that issue later. But this claim is false. If discrimination “on the basis of sex” includes gender identity, why shouldn’t that apply to sports?
As May Mailman, director of the Independent Women’s Law Center (IWLC), has noted, in 2021, the Department of Justice filed a statement of interest in the West Virginia women’s sports dispute claiming that, in its interpretation, Title IX’s text already does “not permit West Virginia to categorically exclude transgender girls from participating in single-sex sports restricted to girls.”
Moreover, the new Title IX rule specifically notes that locker rooms and restrooms should be available to users based on gender identity. Women and girls may now be exposed to male genitalia where they once enjoyed privacy.
