Trans Students Protected By Title IX, Says Biden Administration

The Department of Education announced that transgender students are fully protected against discrimination by Title IX, reversing a previous Trump administration stance in a win for LGBTQ and trans youth across the nation.

The Biden administration has cited a Supreme Court ruling from 2020 that banned workplace discrimination on the basis of gender and sexual orientation under the Civil Rights Act.

“Today, the Department makes clear that all students—including LGBTQ+ students—deserve the opportunity to learn and thrive in schools that are free from discrimination,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona shares with correspondents Wednesday, “The Supreme Court has upheld the right for LGBTQ+ people to live and work without fear of harassment, exclusion, and discrimination—and our LGBTQ+ students have the same rights and deserve the same protections.”

In 2017, former-President Trump withdrew Obama-era guidance for trans students. The administration claimed that Title IX, which prohibits discrimination in education based on sex, did not extend to gender and sexual orientation. They reinforced their bigoted interpretation by retracting the rights of students to use bathrooms corresponding with their identified gender, and threatened to withhold federal funds from schools that allowed trans students to compete in sports.

The Biden administration promised on day one that they would get right to work undoing the roadblocks the Trump administration put in place for gay and trans youth, and they’ve made good on their promise. His first day in office, Biden issued an executive order that extended the Bostock decision’s LGBTQ protections.

Five days later, Biden repealed Trump’s trans military ban, and just a month later, his administration ensured that the Fair Housing Act would defend gay and trans residents. President Biden and Vice President Harris have also both been vocal advocates for the Equality Act, a landmark piece of legislation that would codify LGBTQ protections for future generations.

With the Department of Education’s statement this week comes a vital question: how will this development impact the mounds of anti-trans legislation currently residing in sessions across the country? Unfortunately, the answer isn’t clear yet. Seven anti-trans sports bans have already been enacted in Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi, Montana, and West Virginia, with at least nine other states considering similar bills that would target trans students.

The number of anti-trans bills signed into law has already surpassed all other previous years, tripling the amount passed last year alone. LGBTQ organizations and advocates hope that the declaration will lead to civil and legal action against these discriminatory bills, but we have yet to see how these fights will take shape.

“Some schools, especially in the states where there is legislation, will simply ignore what the federal government says,” says R. Shep Melnick, a professor at Boston College and author of “The Transformation of Title IX: Regulating Gender Equality in Education.” He continues, “And then, it becomes a question of whether the federal government wants to take enforcement action, which I think they may be somewhat reluctant to do.”

However, there’s evidence that President Biden, husband to teacher Dr. Jill Biden, is willing to take on the fight for American students. In March, he directed Secretary Cardona to begin an extensive review of Title IX policies in response to the sudden uptick in discriminatory legislation.

“We are in the process now of synthesizing that information as we go to the next steps of actually developing our rules,” Cardona states. “We are going to move as quickly as possible on it. We know many folks are waiting.”

I want to make this abundantly clear: All means All. pic.twitter.com/3d1OnGQtev

— Secretary Miguel Cardona (@SecCardona) June 16, 2021