Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which protected girls and women in education and sports from discrimination, has been a subject of contention ever since Barack Obama decided to unilaterally reinterpret the law banning discrimination on sex to include "gender identity" during his final year in office.
In May 2016, the Obama administration declared that the Departments of Justice and Education would both “treat a student’s gender identity as the student’s sex for purposes of enforcing Title IX,” and issued a directive to all public school districts in the country requiring them to allow students to use the bathrooms matching their “gender identity.”
Gender identity, of course, is a fictional concept that has become all the rage in leftist circles. They are unwilling to admit that gender dysphoria is a mental illness.
Obama's unilateral redefining of Title IX mandated that public schools and universities recognize a student's self-declared gender identity as their legal sex. This mandate came with a stark ultimatum: comply or risk losing federal funding.
Pandora's transgender box had been opened.
By conflating sex with "gender identity," Obama sent a dangerous message to women and girls everywhere: the government won't protect you anymore. Men could now invade private spaces for women and girls with impunity. In the name of inclusivity, accolades and opportunities could be stolen from real women and girls.
The party that once claimed to be the party of women's rights had officially abandoned them.
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President Trump did restore Title IX to its original intent. However, Joe Biden's new rules will bring us back to Obama's interpretation of the law.
There will be legal challenges, of course. In fact, Kristen Waggoner, the president, CEO, and general counsel of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), has already promised to do so.
The Biden admin can't redefine "sex" in Title IX without affecting women's opportunities, including women’s sports. Under these rule changes, privacy, safety, parental rights, free speech, and—yes—women’s sports are at risk.
— Kristen Waggoner (@KWaggonerADF) April 19, 2024
This is an abuse of federal power that is…
But, I have no doubt that if Biden's rules survive any legal challenges that are made, President Trump will reverse Biden's policy when he takes office. But this merely reinforces the pattern where, when a Democrat is in office, Title IX gets gutted, and when a Republican is in office, its protections for women and girls are restored. This is a terrible system that won't fully protect women and girls because their rights, privacy, safety, and opportunities will be entirely dependent on which party is in power.
In the end, a legislative fix to Title IX that enshrines protections for biological women is necessary to stop Democrats from using backdoor regulation that bypasses Congress to tamper with the law. And this should be a priority for Republicans the next time they have the White House and both the House and Senate. Women and girls deserve to know that their rights and opportunities are safe.
