Red states set stage for federal showdown over protection of transgender students

A growing number of Republican-led states are pledging to reject new Title IX rules finalized this month by the Department of Education, setting off a potential legal battle with the White House over strengthening protections for transgender students.

Top education officials in Florida, Louisiana, Wyoming, South Carolina and Oklahoma have publicly rebuked the Biden administration’s new Title IX regulations that add protections for transgender students, arguing that the new policies roll back the rights of women and girls by expanding historic civil rights. defining sexual discrimination law to include gender identity.

In a letter this week to district boards and superintendents, South Carolina Education Superintendent Ellen Weaver, a Republican, called the new rules “deeply concerning” and advised schools to disregard them. Cade Brumley, Louisiana’s education chief, similarly recommended that schools ignore the updated rules, which he said likely violate state and federal laws.

Laws passed in more than a dozen Republican-led states prevent transgender students from using school bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity or allow teachers and students to disregard a transgender person’s name and pronouns. Adherence to such laws could violate new Title IX regulations, a senior administration official said, if it creates a hostile environment.

“It is inevitable that there will be a legal challenge to the new rules,” Brumley, who is also a Republican, wrote in a letter to local school officials this month. The state is evaluating its options when it comes to challenging the new regulations, Brumley told The Hill, and a lawsuit is not out of the question.

Major conservative organizations, including the Christian legal powerhouse Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), have explicitly threatened to sue over the new regulations, which were finalized this month after more than a year of delays.

The new rules, said ADF legal counsel Rachel Rouleau, will “roll back” Title IX, which has protected students, teachers and staff at schools that receive government funding from discrimination based on sex for more than 50 years.

On Thursday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said the state plans to “fight back” at the new regulations, which he says undermine parents’ right to control their children’s education. The Florida Parental Rights in Education Act, signed by DeSantis in 2021 and expanded late last year, prevents teachers from addressing sexuality and gender identity in the classroom.

DeSantis did not specify Thursday how the state intends to resist the federal government’s directive to implement the Title IX changes by Aug. 1. His office declined to comment on any specific actions the governor might take.

In an emailed statement, a Department of Education spokesperson said public schools across the country are required by law to update their policies to comply with the new regulations, regardless of whether their state officials agree with them. . Doing otherwise could jeopardize federal education funding.

“As a condition of receiving federal funds, all federally funded schools are required to comply with these final regulations,” they said.

The loss of federal education funding would be a significant blow to state education programs that are already struggling financially, but it may be a sacrifice worth making, said Tiffany Justice, co-founder of the conservative political organization Moms for Liberty.

State legislators have the power to reject government money on principle or for technical reasons. And in this case, looking to get around the administration’s new Title IX rules, state Republicans appear somewhat open to considering alternative funding for schools, Justice said, citing past conversations with conservative lawmakers.

Last year, Tennessee lawmakers briefly considered rejecting federal education funding, arguing that Washington’s involvement in the state’s education was “excessive.”

“It is wrong to have the federal government hold money over your head to force you to do something that goes against fundamental parental rights,” Justice said. “We ask lawmakers across the country to consider opting out of its funding.”

Moms for Liberty, founded in 2021 by Justice and Tina Descovich, has drawn national attention — and criticism — for its advocacy against school curricula and library books that address racial and LGBTQ issues. Citing group members’ rhetoric against the LGBTQ community and work combating pandemic safety protocols in schools, the Southern Poverty Law Center named the organization in 2022 an “extremist” group — a designation Justice and Descovich rejected .

LGBTQ and civil rights groups have denounced the recent crop of GOP-led campaigns to reject the Biden administration’s Title IX rules for transgender students, arguing that it will cause harm to all students.

“These MAGA politicians are threatening to put schools in an incredibly precarious position by encouraging them to violate federal civil rights law, potentially exposing them to costly lawsuits and putting their federal funding at risk,” said Brandon Wolf, press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBTQ rights group. “Their theatrics can be extremely harmful to students.”

The Biden administration has not yet finalized a separate rule governing athletics eligibility. The proposal presented by the Department of Education last April would prohibit schools from adopting policies that categorically ban transgender student-athletes from sports teams that match their gender identity.