This Wednesday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott sent a letter to the state's higher education leaders, urging them to ignore the Biden administration's amendment to a federal anti-discrimination law to include "gender identity" as a protected group.
In his message to presidents and regents of prominent institutions such as Texas A&M University, the University of Houston and Texas State University, Abbott argued that the proposed change to Title IX contradicts the law's original purpose, which seeks to protect women against discrimination based on sex.
"Texas will not comply with President Joe Biden's rewrite of Title IX (…). The law passed by Congress was based on the fundamental premise that there are only two sexes— male and female. President Biden wants to force every school across the country to treat boys and men as if they were girls and women and to accept every student's self-declared gender identity, exceeding his authority as President in order to impose a leftist belief on the next generation," he declared in the letter.
The governor explained that adopting Biden's changes would risk all the progress Texas has made by enacting laws that guarantee women's safety and protect their integrity in women's sports, prohibiting men from competing against them.
It should be noted that Abbott had previously sent a letter to the commissioner of the Texas Education Agency, urging him to ignore this federal law.
Texas will not comply with President Biden’s rewrite of Title IX. Period.
Today, I instructed Texas public colleges and universities to ignore this illegal rewrite.
Texas will not let President Biden impose a leftists belief and erase advancements our state has made. pic.twitter.com/GbMSE918Eo
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) May 8, 2024
Texas sues the Biden administration
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit aiming to block the proposed changes.
"Texas will not allow Joe Biden to rewrite Title IX at whim, destroying legal protections for women in furtherance of his radical obsession with gender ideology. This attempt to subvert federal law is plainly illegal, undemocratic, and divorced from reality. Texas will always take the lead to oppose Biden's extremist, destructive policies that put women at risk," he said.
What does the modification of the law say?
According to the Department of Education fact sheet, Title IX now says it prohibits "discrimination and harassment based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics in federally funded education programs."
The change would take effect on August 1, 2024, although the modification has already begun to face legal challenges.
