Judge throws out Biden’s ‘arbitrary’ protections for LGBT+ students
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Federal judge blocks Title IX changes intended to protect trans and nonbinary students from discrimination. A federal judge has thrown out rule changes designed to protect LGBT+ students from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
The rules proposed by President Joe Biden’s administration expanded the scope of Title IX rules that block sex-based discrimination in schools that receive federal funding. Biden’s rule changes sought to clarify that long-standing protections against sex-based discrimination also include harassment and abuse around sexual orientation and gender identity.
The changes were at the center of several legal challenges playing out in roughly half the country. Thursday’s ruling applies nationwide. “As this Court and others have explained, expanding the meaning of ‘on the basis of sex’ to include ‘gender identity’ turns Title IX on its head,” according to Reeves, who was appointed by President George W. Bush.
“The entire point of Title IX is to prevent discrimination based on sex — throwing gender identity into the mix eviscerates the statute and renders it largely meaningless,” he wrote. President-elect Donald Trump was expected to rescind Biden-era rules protecting LGBT+ Americans within his first days in office, with a pledge to “keep men out of women’s sports” and plans to prosecute physicians that provide gender-affirming health care to trans youth.
