Susannah Luthi writes for the Washington Free Beacon about reaction to one of President Biden’s ill-advised executive actions.
Red states and women’s groups hit President Joe Biden with four lawsuits Monday and Tuesday over his overhaul of the federal Title IX ban on sex discrimination in schools and universities. The rule, slated to take effect August 1, replaces sex with gender identity in what the lawsuits say will allow males into female spaces and could punish staff or students who “misgender” a trans-identifying colleague or peer.
“Forcing a young girl to change clothes in front of a boy or man in a locker room is entirely antithetical to the dignity and respect that Title IX was intended to preserve and advance,” a complaint from Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, and Idaho says. “So, too, is forcing children of opposite sexes to share adjoining stalls in the traditionally private space of a bathroom. These are not close questions.”
The lawsuits allege that Biden’s regulation violates free speech rights, given that it renders as sex-based harassment the refusal to call trans-identifying students by their chosen names and pronouns, or the guarantee of single-sex bathrooms, locker rooms, or activities. They argue it also represents administrative overreach, since the policy unilaterally overrides Congress’s original sex-based protections. Texas, which filed its own complaint, notes the policy can only be enforced subjectively, since “anyone who may even only temporarily or intermittently … identify” as transgender can claim it as grounds for complaints.
The court battles come as additional lawsuits and controversies pile up around the country to challenge the same “gender identity” policies that Biden wants to take nationwide. College female athletes are suing the NCAA over its policies to allow trans-identifying males to compete in women’s sports. In West Virginia, middle school girls who refused to compete against a trans-identifying male in a track-and-field meet to protest unfairness have been blocked from future competitions—spurring a lawsuit from the state’s attorney general to support the girls.
