The Biden administration’s changes to Title IX, which include protections for LGBTQ identification, are slated to take effect this month, except in Texas.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, the Biden administration’s revision of Title IX, which prohibits discrimination based on sex, expands the rule to make gender identity and sexual orientation protected categories.
Some local school districts, such as Carroll ISD, sued the Biden administration over the rule expansion.
Acting on behalf of Carroll ISD, the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) sued the U.S. Department of Education this past May. ADF claimed that the rule changes represent a “fundamental and radical rewriting of federal law” by the federal government that “forces schools across the country to embrace a controversial gender ideology that harms children — including the very children it claims to help.”
Northern District of Texas Judge Reed O’Connor sided with Carroll ISD in July.
“Privileging gender identity over biological sex is in no way authorized by the statutory text. And the consequences based on this statutory distortion appear limitless. For these reasons, and those stated by other federal courts, Carroll ISD is likely to succeed on the merits of their challenge to the final rule,” O’Connor wrote, reported WFAA.
Twenty-six states have pending legal challenges to Biden’s new Title IX rule, which has put the changes on hold, per Education Week.
“Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued the Biden administration to block the new rules. He called it unlawful and said schools would lose federal funding if they don’t comply. He succeeded in court and sent an advisory to all Texas schools, telling them not to adopt or enforce any part of the new rule. And it’s not just the state. It’s not just at the state level. Carroll ISD sued to stop changes from taking effect in its district, and it said Title IX changes take protections away from girls and away from women,” education reporter Bill Zeeble told KERA News.
In early May, Gov. Greg Abbott encouraged colleges and universities in the Lone Star State to ignore the Title IX revisions.