Arkansas joins the rebellion of Republican states against Biden's new Title IX

Arkansas joined some red states in their rebellion against President Joe Biden's Title IX change. Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Donald Trump's former Press Secretary, described the White House initiative as "ridiculous" and warned that it directly attacks women's sports throughout the country.

In late April, the Biden Administration expanded Title IX, specifically meaning sex discrimination to include sexual orientation and gender identity. According to the Republican governor, this measure is "clearly ridiculous" and will lead "to males unfairly competing in women’s sports; receiving access to women’s and girls’ locker rooms, bathrooms, and private spaces; and competing for women’s scholarships."

“If Biden gets his way, female college students will shower and change next to male college students, referring to someone using biologically correct pronouns will get you all in front of a disciplinary board for harassment and scholarships previously reserved for women will now be open to anyone claiming to be a woman," he added from the Arkansas Capitol in the city of Little Rock.

Huckabee Sanders signed an executive order instructing schools to comply with state laws on this matter, which prevent transgender students from using bathrooms, locker rooms and competing on sports teams that match their gender identity.

In turn, educational institutions must continue to comply with the 2023 law that also prevents state employees from addressing minors with a pronoun other than their biological sex without the permission of their parents.

So far, more than a dozen Republican states have sued the Department of Education over changes to Title IX, including Texas, Montana, Idaho and Mississippi, among others. In turn, Florida and Ohio also announced that they will not apply the new rules.

Enacted in 1972, Title IX was designed to prohibit any discrimination based on sex in schools or programs that receive public money.

"No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance," Title IX reads, which was originally written by the then-senator Birch Bayh (D-IN).