The Biden administration approved part of the update to the Title IX this Friday. The new regulation would ban schools from discriminating against transgender students and also updated the measures schools must take when a student claims to have suffered sexual harassment or assault on school property.
The new regulations ensure that sexual discrimination will also be considered based on gender identity and sexual orientation, as the Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona explained during a conference call with the Washington Post: "No one should face bullying or discrimination just because of who they are or who they love. Sadly, this happens all too often," said Cardona.
The new rules allow students to use bathrooms and locker rooms of the gender with which they identify instead of their biological sex from birth. It will also force schools to address students with their preferred pronouns.
The new regulations also include a series of rules that schools need to adhere to prohibit discrimination in cases of pregnancy, childbirth, abortion and breastfeeding. Schools will have to allow pregnant students to attend doctors appointments during the student day and also provide clean and private rooms to breastfeed their babies or pump if necessary.
The Title IX update leaves the issue about sports competitions up in the air
However, the government did not decide anything on the most controversial issue of the regulations: Allowing trans men to participate in women's sports competitions. This issue is considered the most controversial point in the update of Title IX, a 1972 law that was created with the aim of preventing sexual discrimination in schools. The Biden administration claimed that it needed more time to decide what to do with this issue.
What it does ensure is that sex will be determined by each person’s sexual identity. Athlete Riley Gaines, one of the most critical opponents of updating Title IX, does not agree with this. She took to social media to express her concerns with the new regulations:
The Biden Admin has just officially abolished Title IX as we knew it. Now, sex = gender identity.
In a nutshell, the new rewrite means:
- men can take academic AND athletic scholarships from women
- men will have FULL access to bathrooms, locker rooms, etc
- men could be… pic.twitter.com/JfQVI9Yfph— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) April 19, 2024
