At least 22 Republican-led states are suing the Biden administration over its new rules to protect LGBTQ students from discrimination in federally funded schools.
The lawsuits follow the Education Department’s expansion of Title IX federal civil rights rules last month, which will now include anti-discrimination protections for students on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Among other provisions, the new rules would prohibit schools from barring transgender students from using bathrooms, changing facilities and pronouns that correspond with their gender identities.
Title IX was originally enacted in 1972 to prevent sex-based discrimination and sexual harassment in educational programs and activities funded by the federal government.
Attorneys general in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia who sued the administration in separate lawsuits last week argued that the Biden administration’s update to the rules is illegal. The attorneys general contended that the Education Department has exceeded its authority in changing the regulation.
And this week seven other states — Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota — agreed, joining the legal battle by filing two additional lawsuits.
“The interpretation of the Biden administration is completely inconsistent with the statute and the way it’s been interpreted for decades,” Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said at a news conference Tuesday alongside Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey.
A spokesperson for the Education Department said in an email that the department does not comment on ongoing litigation and that all federally funded schools are obligated to comply with the new rules.
In some GOP-led states, governors and education secretaries have discouraged state officials from complying with the new federal regulation.
“Florida rejects Joe Biden’s attempt to rewrite Title IX,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a video on social media. “We will not comply, and we will fight back.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent a letter to Texas’ public university systems and community colleges Wednesday, urging them to disregard the new provisions.
“As I have already made clear, Texas will not comply with President Joe Biden’s rewrite of Title IX that contradicts the original purpose and spirit of the law to support the advancement of women,” the letter reads. “Last week, I instructed the Texas Education Agency to ignore President Biden’s illegal dictate of Title IX. Today, I am instructing every public college and university in the State of Texas to do the same.”
GOP backlash over the new rules comes amid a yearslong legislative effort from Republican lawmakers to regulate how LGBTQ issues are taught in school, where trans students can use the bathroom and whether trans students should be allowed to compete in girls’ and women’s sports.
Within the last several years, half of the nation’s states have passed laws or regulations restricting trans students’ participation in sports and 10 states have enacted measures that bar trans students and staffers from using bathrooms that correspond with their gender identities. Eleven states restrict how some LGBTQ issues are taught at school.
The new Title IX rules do not address trans participation in sports.
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