In just one week, federal judges appointed by Republicans have stopped 10 states from enforcing new laws meant to protect transgender children.
The decisions came after two lawsuits from Republican attorneys general that were directed at President Joe Biden’s anti-discrimination platform. This case could now be sent to the Supreme Court for a decision, while at least five other lawsuits are being filed by GOP officials and conservative Christian legal groups against the president’s changes to policies that include transgender people.
A very important civil rights law called Title IX has stopped sex-based discrimination in schools for more than 50 years. The rules that Biden announced in April make these rights broader by making it clear that they also cover discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
These protections would let transgender students play sports and use bathrooms that match their gender. They would also be able to use their chosen names and pronouns. These rules would apply to all schools in the country that receive federal funding.
But on Monday, District Judge Danny Reeves issued an order that said those rights could not go into effect in Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, or West Virginia.
Doughty, a district judge, stopped the rules from going into action last week in Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, and Idaho.
Lawyers for the Education Department have said that the Supreme Court’s 2020 decision, which upheld LGBT+ people’s rights against discrimination in the workplace, should then be applied to LGBT+ students as well.
The judges didn’t agree with that reasoning.
The new rule was called “an abuse of power” and a “threat to democracy” by Doughty, who was hired by Trump.
“Title IX was made to protect biological females from being discriminated against,” Doughty wrote. “However, the final rule may make it more likely for biological women to face discrimination than they did before Title IX.”
Reeves, who was appointed by George W. Bush, said that Biden’s policy for the Department of Education was “arbitrary.”
He wrote that Title IX was meant to “level the playing field” between boys and girls in school, but that new rules from the government are now trying to “derail deeply rooted law.”
The judge wrote on Monday, “At its core, the department would flip Title IX on its head by expanding the meaning of’sex’ to include ‘gender identity.'” “But gender identity and sex are not the same thing.” The department’s interpretation goes against what Title IX actually says, so it’s not within its power to make rules based on that law.
The rules will start on August 1, 2024, before the 2024–2025 school year. Before the November elections, more bills are expected to be introduced in state capitols across the country that would make it harder for transgender students to get positive healthcare, gendered sports, and bathrooms.
Kelley Robinson, head of the Human Rights Campaign, said that the federal court decisions were “MAGA theater with the dangerous goal of making discrimination the law.”
This year, more than 400 bills aimed at LGBT+ Americans were proposed in state legislatures, according to a civil rights group for LGBT+ people. There were at least 27 bills that became laws.
Last week, Republicans in the House introduced a bill to undo Biden’s Title IX policies. Foxx, who is the chair of the Education Committee, said that the policies would “let men intrude into women’s spaces and take opportunities away from women,” which was not true.
On Monday, a representative for the Education Department told The Independent that the department is looking over the recent court decisions.
“Title IX guarantees that no one will be discriminated against because of their gender in a federally funded school,” the spokesperson said. “The Department followed a strict process to make the final Title IX regulations that meet the requirements of the Title IX statute.” The Department backs the final Title IX rules that came out in April 2024, and we will keep fighting for all of our students.
Source: The Independent
