Last week, on August 1st, the Biden Administration’s significant changes to Title IX to include “gender identity” were rolled out across the nation. Twenty-six states’ attorneys general are challenging the new regulations, and courts have temporarily blocked these changes in those states. Even though North Carolina is the only state in the south not challenging the regulations, 205 schools in North Carolina are exempt from these changes thanks to their affiliation with the conservative group, Moms for Liberty.
Title IX was put in place to protect women’s equal access to educational opportunities like certain degrees and sports. The Biden Administration has turned Title IX on its head to include protections on the basis of an individual’s “gender identity.” This means that now any federally funded school and education program or institution has to treat a biological male who identifies as a female like a woman, allowing them to compete on women’s teams, stay in women’s dorms, and use women’s bathrooms and locker rooms. This effectively undermines the protections that Title IX was originally designed to provide.
In response to these drastic changes, many groups and individuals are filing lawsuits. Student athletes, teachers, and school districts have all expressed that these changes force them to act in a way that violates their beliefs or puts themselves at risk, and they are speaking out against them. The result of this is that 26 states are under litigation seeking to bar the implementation of the Title IX rewrites.
You can learn more about these changes and the legal responses by listening to our interview with Matt Sharp
One of the groups that filed a lawsuit against the Department of Education was the group Moms for Liberty. In response, a federal judge ordered that the changes to Title IX would be blocked from any school with a Moms for Liberty parent. This includes over 2,000 schools across 45 states. In North Carolina, 205 schools are included in this protection, including 54 in Wake County. As more moms join Moms for Liberty, there is a possibility that this number could increase. That injunction also applies to any school with a student who belongs to Young America’s Foundation or Female Athletes United.
Policies like these that prioritize gender identity over biological sex have resulted in countless lost opportunities for women, as well as stories of assault and injuries. We pray that leaders at all levels will continue to recognize this and put a stop to policies that put women at risk.