Attorney General Ken Paxton moved to block the Biden administration’s latest Title IX changes earlier this week that protect biological men and women who identify as transgender and enter the private spaces of the opposite sex.
Paxton filed an amended complaint, a motion for a stay of agency action, and a preliminary injunction as a part of his lawsuit against the Biden administration’s proposed rule. The changes to Title IX, which begin in August, establish “gender identity” as a protected class, meaning those who identify as transgender or nonbinary have a legal right to use the restrooms and locker rooms of the opposite biological sex, as well as participate with their preferred sports team.
Title IX is a 1972 law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in schools that receive federal taxpayer money. The Biden administration proposed changes to the law in April, as previously reported by The Dallas Express. Paxton quickly responded to the rule with a lawsuit that claimed the policy “contorts” women’s protections.
“Texas is asking the court to put an immediate stop to Biden’s outrageous, unlawful assault on women’s rights,” Paxton said on Tuesday. “Biden cannot violate the Constitution to subvert Title IX protections for women in his effort to accommodate the fringe demands of ‘transgender’ movement activists.”
Stephen Miller, the president of America First Legal, which serves as a co-counsel with Paxton in the lawsuit, said the Biden administration’s rule changes push a “destructive and abusive ideology.”
“Biden’s new Title IX rule would force girls in every public school in America to share restrooms, locker rooms, and private facilities with men,” Miller claimed in the news release.
“It would force onto millions of children the destructive and abusive ideology which holds drugs and mutilative surgery can reverse a child’s gender and make boys into girls and girls into boys. We are privileged to work in partnership with Texas and the indomitable Ken Paxton to seek the urgent termination of this lawless decree.”
Gov. Greg Abbott sent a letter to Texas’ public colleges in May that stated they should not follow the Title IX changes, as previously reported by DX.
Carroll ISD’s school board unanimously passed a resolution in May detailing a “deep concern over the potential negative impact on our students and community” from the Title IX changes.
Still, myriad healthcare groups and advocacy organizations claim that recognizing and accommodating people who identify as transgender in social spaces and allowing for medical transitioning can have positive outcomes for those individuals.
According to Columbia University’s Department of Psychiatry, “Research demonstrates that gender-affirming care — a medical and psychosocial health care designed to affirm individuals’ gender identities — greatly improves the mental health and overall well-being of gender diverse, transgender, and nonbinary children and adolescents.”