Biden ‘undoing decades of women’s rights’
New rules aiming to stop gender discrimination in schools under Title IX anger US Republicans
JOE BIDEN has been accused by conservatives of undermining decades of “advancement and protection for women and girls” with new rules that aim to stop gender discrimination in schools and colleges.
The US government issued rules on Friday that update Title IX, a 1972 law that prohibits sex discrimination in schools that receive federal funding.
Mr Biden’s revisions mean that discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation are also banned under federal law – in a move that critics say will undermine protection for women in school bathrooms and on sports fields.
The rules have become a key battleground in the culture war between progressives and conservatives on gender identity. Mr Biden had promised to provide federal protections for transgender athletes to participate in sports according to their chosen gender.
The update does not explicitly deal with that issue, but does widen the scope of the rules to include discrimination against LGBTQ students.
It makes it illegal to treat students differently based on their gender identity, which could be used to enshrine the right of transgender students to use their preferred bathroom.
At least 11 states currently restrict which bathrooms and locker rooms transgender students can use, banning them from using facilities that align with their gender identity.
Many Republicans say Congress never intended such protections under Title IX, and accuse Mr Biden of replacing sex-based protections with “radical gender theory”.
Virginia Foxx, a Republican congresswoman and chairman of the House education and the workforce committee, said: “The Department of Education has placed Title IX, and the decades of advancement and protections for women and girls that it has yielded, squarely on the chopping block. This final rule dumps kerosene on the already raging fire that is Democrats’ contemptuous culture war that aims to radically redefine sex and gender.”
Other conservatives suggested the rules could be used by transgender students to participate in school and college sports.
“Today, the Biden administration redefined the definition of a ‘woman’,” said Tommy Tuberville, a Republican senator from Alabama.
Betsy DeVos, who served as education secretary under Donald Trump’s administration, said: “The Biden Administration’s radical rewrite of Title IX guts the half century of protections and opportunities for women and callously replaces them with radical gender theory, as Biden’s far-Left political base demanded.”
Mr Biden’s officials said the rules will strengthen protections for LGBTQ rights in schools and point to an updated process for dealing with sexual misconduct. Miguel Cardona, the US education secretary, said the rules make “crystal clear that everyone can access schools that are safe, welcoming and that respect their rights”.