On October 28, 2024, NWLC submitted an amicus brief in Alabama et al. v. United States Secretary of Education, a Title IX case in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. NWLC and Democracy Forward coauthored the brief, which argues that the district court correctly denied the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction that would have blocked enforcement of the Department of Education’s newly promulgated rule implementing Title IX in multiple states and individual schools across the country: Nondiscrimination on the Basis of Sex in Education Programs or Activities Receiving Federal Financial Assistance, 89 Fed. Reg. 33474, 33476 (Apr. 29, 2024) (the “Rule”).

As the brief explains, the Rule provides, among other things, that the scope of prohibited sex discrimination under Title IX includes discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Schools must therefore permit transgender students to use school facilities, such as locker rooms and restrooms, consistent with their gender identity. In challenging the Rule, the brief argues, the plaintiffs drew on baseless fears and stereotypes to conjure up the specter of harm to the privacy and safety of cisgender students, when the reality is that no such threat exists. In fact, available data reflects that it is transgender students who are most at risk when schools do not permit them to use facilities that align with their affirmed gender, while the mere presence of transgender students in gender-aligned spaces presents no credible threat to their cisgender peers. The district court correctly declined to credit the plaintiffs’ contrary allegations, which also contravened most of the established legal precedent prior to the Rule’s promulgation. Thus, the brief argues, the Eleventh Circuit should affirm the district court’s decision denying the injunction.