Biden’s Trans Youth-Inclusive Title IX Rules Recently Blocked by a Federal Judge

The Biden administration’s Title IX rule is set to go into effect on August 1. In response, judges in GOP-controlled states are deciding to block these rules. 

Chief Judge Danny Reeves of the Eastern District of Kentucky has temporarily blocked the Biden administration’s Title IX, which aims to protect LGBTQ+ and trans youth from discrimination. The judge asserts that the concepts of “sex” and “gender identity” are not interchangeable. This means that a federal law that prevents sex-based discrimination will not protect trans students.

Judge Reeves issued Tennessee v. Cardona in the U.S. district court in Kentucky on Monday. This prevents Biden’s Title IX rule from going into effect in the states of Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. Judge Reeves states that the Department of Education “fails to provide a reasoned explanation for departing from its longstanding interpretations regarding the meaning of sex.”

Via an update to Title IX which is intended to go into effect as of August 1 of this year, the Department of Education aims to provide more protection to LGBTQ+ students by educating schools to be more inclusive and accepting of queer, transgender, and intersex people. Federally funded institutions will be subject to these rules, which aim to grant trans students the freedom to use restrooms that align with their gender identity and ensure they are addressed by their proper pronouns and names.

Following the new rules and regulations, at least 22 conservative-led states filed challenges against the Biden administration. Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti claimed in a press release that the rules under Biden’s administration’s Title IX mean “profound changes to the law that the American people never agreed to.” 

In addition to the ruling in Tennessee, U.S. District Judge Terry A. Doughty decided to block the Title IX rules in Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, and Idaho, being the first judge to do so. Shortly after that, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit also decided to block the Title IX rules in over a dozen additional states, making the Biden administration’s rule change blocked in 21 states and the final rule blocked in 10 states. 

Republicans in Congress have also proposed to abolish Biden Title IX rules through HJ Res. 165, which The House Committee on Education and the Workforce approved last week.