Education rules from 2020 are returning to ‘protect women.’ Are vulnerable students at risk?
Shiwali Patel, senior director of Safe and Inclusive Schools for the National Women’s Law Center, a nonprofit organization that advocates for the rights of women, girls and LGBTQ+ people, said that she expects the January 9 decision to be challenged.
“This is one district court decision, but there are federal circuit courts that have more precedential authority that have been very clear about Title IX’s broad scope and how Title IX protects trans and nonbinary students, and that that means allowing access to restrooms or playing sports like in the Fourth Circuit and the Ninth Circuit where they’ve struck down categorical sports bans,” Patel said.
Patel also objected to the letter the Department of Education issued to schools on Friday because it indicates that an executive order Trump issued on January 20 called “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” also invalidates the Biden administration’s Title IX revisions. The executive order instructs agencies and departments in the federal government’s executive branch to enforce policy with the understanding that just “two sexes, male and female,” exist.
“These protections don’t just go away, even if the president wants it to be that way because he thinks he’s king, because he issued this executive order,” Patel said. “It doesn’t mean he can undo all this precedent. That’s not the power that he has.”
The National Women’s Law Center challenged the 2020 Title IX rule upon its finalization because it not only rolled back protections for survivors, Patel said, but instilled procedures that were hostile to them as well. Despite its shortcomings, she continued, the DeVos-era rule does not inhibit a definition of sex discrimination that includes gender identity. Other than a brief discussion of sex stereotyping, the older regulation simply does not discuss gender identity, she said.