Joe Biden Destroys Title IX
Biden’s new regulations are an assault on women’s privacy, dignity, and hard-fought opportunities.
Title IX, the law safeguarding girls and women in education from discrimination, shouldn’t be controversial. But, it has been ever since Barack Obama expanded its interpretation to include “gender identity” during his last year in office.
Obama required all public schools nationwide to recognize a student’s self-proclaimed gender identity as their sex under Title IX, granting them access to facilities and sports teams based on their self-identified “gender identity.” Failure to comply meant risking losing federal aid.
It was a blatant abuse of power.
Title IX exclusively addresses biological sex, with no mention of “gender identity,” “gender expression,” or any woke terminology introduced after its enactment by the legislators.
Naturally, Donald Trump reversed Obama’s reinterpretation, labeling it unconstitutional, but on Friday, Joe Biden restored the Obama standard that punishes girls and women by eliminating the distinction of biological sex in favor of “gender identity,” which will not only give biological males access to scholarships intended for women, but also the right to use women’s locker rooms, private spaces, and even single-sex housing
And if you speak out against these policies, you can be punished.
“There’s a reason this new rule was delayed again and again: the Biden administration knew that it was stretching the law beyond its breaking point,” explains Ilya Shapiro, a senior fellow and director of constitutional studies at the Manhattan Institute. “At a time when American higher education is in crisis, with a drastic loss in popular confidence, this new rule adds fuel to that fire.”
The administration expands Title IX to cover an undefined “gender identity” despite the law’s clear understanding of sex as biological and binary—regardless whether you care most about statutory text or purpose, or even legislative history. Name-checking the Supreme Court’s Bostock decision and leaving unresolved (for now) the issue of biological males playing in women’s sports doesn’t save the rule.
As bad as the redefinition of “sex” is, what’s arguably even worse about the new rule is its subversion of due process and free speech. The Kafka-esque inquisitions that were the hallmark of Obama-era governance will now return with a vengeance. And bloated educational bureaucracies will waste no time in investigating and disciplining students and faculty for politically incorrect speech that now runs afoul of expansive, nebulous, and shape-shifting definitions of sex-based harassment.
All of this is the continuation of the subversion of the core mission of schools and universities to seek truth and develop human knowledge, and of classical liberal values like free speech, due process, and equality under the law. This rule aims to inculcate radical change in American society. It’s bad law, bad policy, and a continuation of a broader shift from education to activism.
Democrats have long claimed to be champions of women’s rights, but actions like this prove they are beholden to the transgender cult. They couldn’t care less about robbing women and girls of their privacy, dignity, and hard-fought opportunities.
“The Biden Admin has just officially abolished Title IX as we knew it,” said Riley Gaines, the former swimming star from the University of Kentucky who was forced to compete against Will “Lia” Thomas in the NCCA national championships in 2022.
“The new final rules re-write discrimination as ‘based on stereotypes, sexual orientation, gender identity, sex characteristics,’” notes Jennifer Sey, the founder & CEO of XX-XY Athletics. “But not actual sex.”
“They are eliminating sex-based categories and distinctions,” she continued, “and gaslighting us into accepting that there is no actual difference between males and females.”
She added, “They are playing games with language. And smuggling in lies.”
The Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) has promised to fight these new changes in court.
“The Biden admin can’t redefine ‘sex’ in Title IX without affecting women’s opportunities, including women’s sports,” Kristen Waggoner, the president, CEO, and General Counsel of ADF, said in a post on X/Twitter. “Under these rule changes, privacy, safety, parental rights, free speech, and—yes—women’s sports are at risk.”
“This is an abuse of federal power that is anti-women, anti-science, and anti-logic,” she added. “See you in court.”
I can’t predict whether any legal challenges to Biden’s new regulations will succeed. Still, the sad part is that thanks to Obama, a distressing cycle emerged wherein the interpretation of Title IX will be subject to constant revision, with Republicans being the only party who will stand up for real women.