Parental rights advocacy group Moms for Liberty is suing the Biden administration over its new Title IX rules expanding the definition of “women” to include trans-identified males. The White House’s move was met with a fierce backlash from opponents arguing that it is an effort to use federal power to force progressive gender ideology on the public. The lawsuit follows legal actions lodged by states and other organizations.
In a press release, Moms for Liberty announced that it is “taking steps to continue their fight against Biden’s new Title IX Regulations.”
New federal Title IX language makes “gender identity” a protected class, which means students cannot use birth gender pronouns or other descriptors about those who no longer “identify” with that gender in school without facing possible discipline or embarrassment. Moms for Liberty argues that these overly broad regulations will also chill a student’s ability to say they are uncomfortable with someone of the opposite birth sex in their bathroom, and that a parent could be prevented from being the one to teach their own child about gender identity as it aligns with their personal beliefs.
Moms for Liberty co-founders Tiffany Justice and Tina Descovich argued that “Parental rights do not end at the classroom door,” and predicted that American parents are “about to see biological boys on girls’ sports teams and in girls’ locker rooms; and gender identity and sexual orientation will be taught in every classroom across America, whether parents like it or not.”
Kimberly Hermann, with the Southeastern Legal Foundation, said the Biden administration’s Title IX changes “guts parental rights, forces our children to affirm the idea that kids can change their gender, and threatens punishment if they dare speak up for their physical safety in a bathroom or locker room.”
The new Title IX rules are ostensibly aimed at preventing discrimination against transgender individuals. But some have pointed out that this will create a situation in which biological males are allowed to invade women’s spaces in various areas, including sports, locker rooms, restrooms, and others. In April, the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) filed a federal lawsuit against the Biden administration on behalf of Rapides Parish School Board in Louisiana:
The Biden administration’s changes in the application of the 1972 federal law “will force schools to impose widespread harms on young people and deny free speech rights,” the legal group argues
The lawsuit says:
The Biden administration’s redefinition of the word “sex” in Title IX forces schools across the country to embrace a controversial gender ideology that harms children—including the very children it claims to help. And it fundamentally undermines the statute Congress enacted fifty years ago.
Under the new criteria, male students who identify as females will be permitted access to girls’ private areas such as bathrooms, locker rooms, and showers, participate in girls’ physical education classes, and play on girls’ sports teams, despite contradictory information surrounding the athletic program impacts.
The ADF also asserted that the new rules would force schools “to embrace controversial gender ideology that harms children.”
On Tuesday, attorneys general in Kansas, Utah, Wyoming, and Alaska also filed a lawsuit against the White House, alleging that it is trying to “politicize our country’s education system.”
This is a developing story, and RedState will provide updates as details become available.
