Gov. Greg Abbott orders Texas to ignore Biden administration’s new federal protections of LGBTQ+ students
The new Title IX rules expanded the definition of sex-based harassment.Texas is also suing the Biden administration to block the changes.
BY SNEHA DEY APRIL 29, 2024
Gov. Greg Abbott ordered the Texas Education Agency on Monday to ignore a Biden administration rule that expanded federal sex discrimination protections to include LGBTQ+ students.
The Biden administration recently revised the rules for Title IX, the sweeping civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination at federally funded colleges and K-12 schools. The new rules, which are set to go into effect in August, redefined sex discrimination and sex-based harassment to prevent misconduct based on sex stereotypes, pregnancy, gender identity and sexual orientation. It codifies initial guidance documents that prompted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to sue the Biden administration last year.
"Congress wrote Title IX to protect women. Biden, with no authority to do so, rewrote Title IX to protect men who identify as women," Abbott wroteMonday on social media platform X.
Abbott's order came the same day Paxton announced he had sued the Biden administration Monday to block the Title IX changes. Texas joins a growing number of Republican-led states that have berated the new rules, setting the stage for a legal fight over LGBTQ+ student protections. They say the Biden administration misinterpreted the intent of Title IX.
In its final interpretation of Title IX, theBiden administration sought to extend a 2020 U.S. Supreme Courtcase decision related to workplace discrimination to students.The high court ruled in Bostock v. Clayton County that Title VII, a civil rights law that bars employment discrimination on the basis of sex, applied to gay and transgender workers.
The Title IX changes also walk back rules set during the Trump administration that required “live hearings” in which students accused of sexual misconduct could question accusers in a courtroom-like setting. The Biden administration kept Trump-era provisions that allow informal resolutions and prohibit penalties against students until an investigation is complete.
(More states to come)
https://www.texastribune.org/2024/04/29/texas-title-ix-lgbtq-paxton-biden/