In a historic decision, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has achieved a significant victory against the Biden administration’s Department of Education (DOE). Paxton successfully halted the DOE’s attempts to implement radical “transgender” policies in Texas educational institutions.
This action effectively opposes the administration’s effort to redefine Title IX to include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” as protected classes, which is seen as a violation of both state and federal laws.
In June 2023, Paxton filed a lawsuit against the DOE, alleging an illegal attempt to compel schools to adopt “transgender” ideology by threatening the withdrawal of federal education funds.
According to the press release:
Title IX is a federal statute that prohibits discrimination “on the basis of sex” in educational institutions. Under Biden, the Department of Education has issued guidance arbitrarily expanding this category to include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.” The guidance risks federal education funding for Texas colleges and universities as well as all Texas K-12 schools receiving any amount of federal funding by unlawfully asserting that these conceptions promoted by the extremist transgender movement are covered by Title IX protections.
Examples purported by the Biden Administration to be violations of Title IX include teachers failing to forcibly compel students to use classmates’ so-called “preferred pronouns,” schools’ policies enforcing separate bathroom facilities for biological males and females, and schools’ policies refusing to allow biological males to compete on female sports teams. Under this doctrine, Texas schools would be investigated by the federal government for following Texas law, including Chapter 33 of the Education Code protecting the integrity of school athletics participation on the basis of biological sex.
Texas is challenging this blatant attempt to misuse federal regulatory power to force K-12 schools, colleges, and universities in our state to accept and implement “transgender” ideology—in violation of state law—by misusing the Title IX statute to threaten the withholding of federal education funds. The Administration’s unlawful guidance could put at risk over $6 billion in federal funding that supports Texas K-12 and higher education institutions.
In April 2024, the Biden administration revealed a new 1577-page Title IX ruling that mandates women to allow men in their locker rooms and bathrooms. This means women must compete against men and include men on their sports teams. The ruling also mandates that women and young girls share locker rooms and bathrooms according to gender identity rather than biological sex.
The court has now sided with Paxton, asserting that the Department does not have the authority to redefine “sex” in a manner that contradicts Title IX.
“Joe Biden’s unlawful effort to weaponize Title IX for his extremist agenda has been stopped in its tracks,” said Attorney General Paxton. “Threatening to withhold education funding by forcing states to accept ‘transgender’ policies that put women in danger was plainly illegal. Texas has prevailed on behalf of the entire Nation.”
As per the court order:
“[The Biden Administration] failed to follow the proper procedures here. Rather than promote the equal opportunity, dignity, and respect that Title IX demands for both biological sexes, [the DOE’s] Guidance Documents do the opposite in an effort to advance an agenda wholly divorced from the text, structure, and contemporary context of Title IX.… Thus, to allow [the Biden Administration’s] unlawful action to stand would be to functionally rewrite Title IX in a way that shockingly transforms American education and usurps a major question from Congress. That is not how our democratic system functions.”
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