Biden Administration Warns Government Schools to Allow Boys to Access Girls’ Restrooms and Locker Rooms

The U.S. Department of Education last week published a “Notice of Interpretation” essentially redefining the word “sex” in Title IX of the Educational Amendments to include sexual orientation and “gender identity” in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County. The court ruled that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects employees against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. In that case, a male funeral home employee wanted to dress as a woman at work, and his employer refused to allow it.

The American College of Pediatricians said schools “will now be forced to allow biologically male students access to all female-only spaces. They will be housed with females during overnight school trips and events, participate in female-only sports, and displace females from female-only sports teams. This interpretation is unscientific and a clear threat to the health and safety of female students.”

Now the Biden administration has issued a “Dear Educator” letter (PDF) to government schools. The department’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) warns them:

Consistent with this notice, OCR will fully enforce Title IX to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in education programs and activities that receive Federal financial assistance from the Department. For more information, please see our accompanying fact sheet in which OCR and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division provide examples of the kinds of incidents we can investigate.

Under President Donald Trump, the same office warned Connecticut that it could lose federal funding over a policy that allows boys to compete against girls in sports, which it contended deprives female athletes of equal opportunity in education.

From the Christian Post:

Conservative groups quickly panned the Department of Education’s Dear Educator letter, elaborating on the new interpretation of Title IX. “It’s an unhappy anniversary for Title IX,” said Meridian Baldacci, policy and communications strategist at the Family Policy Institute in response to the letter.

“Today, the Biden administration single-handedly turned Title IX on its head to say that women are discriminating against men when they have concerns about men being called ‘women,’ using their locker rooms, competing on their sports teams, or taking away their championships and scholarship opportunities. That the Department of Education is demanding this in the name of ‘protecting’ students and stopping ‘discrimination’ is stunning. This move is misguided and antithetical to the purpose of Title IX,” she added.

The Christian Post notes that toward the end of Barack Obama’s second term, his administration issued letters to schools directing them to allow “transgenders” to use opposite-sex restrooms and locker rooms. The Trump administration announced that it would stop defending the directive.

Photo credit: By w:User:Coolcaesar – DOE, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

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